
t 

5 

T 

i 



POl- JL AR 



OBJECTIOjS'S to METHODISM 

COXSIDEEED AXD A^s'SWEEED: 
OR 

THE CONVERT'S COUNSELLOii 

EESPECTIXG HIS CHUECH EELATIOXS : 

WITH REASONS WHY METHODIST COXVERTS 
SHOULD JOIX A METHODIST CHURCH. 

AN A2?TID0TE TO CERTAIN KECEXT PUBLICATIONS ^SSAILIXQ 
p THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUPCH. 

BY DANIEL WISE, 

Author of Young Man's Counsellor, Young Lady's Counsellor, 
Path of Life, &c., &c. 

FIFTH THOUSAND. 



BOSTON: 
FOR SALE BY J. P. 

1 85 6. 



M AGEE. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, 
By DANIEL WISE, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 

Theoil. Bern 



Geo. C. Raud & Avery, Printers, 8 Comhill, Boston. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



My first intention, when gathering materials for this 
work, was to write a full and complete answer to all 
the points raised by certain recent writers against our 
church. A little reflection, howeyer, convinced me 
that such a task was needless. 1. Their writings do 
not reach many of our people. 2. If they did, their 
absurdity, falsity, and bad spirit are so obvious, that 
none of our members, if at all acquainted with Metho- 
dism, could be alienated from it by what they contain. 
3. There is no probability that our enemies, who 
accept those writings, would go to the expense of pur- 
chasing such a reply, if written ; for such persons do 
not wish to be convinced of their falsehood. 4. The 
only mischief likely to accrue to our church fi'om their 
circulation, arises from the oral propagation of their 
more salient assertions among those who, having re- 
ceived Christ at our altars, and being as yet but par- 
tially acquainted with our system, are the objects of 
an unscrupulous proselytism. Hence it appeared to 



iv 



INTRODUCTIOISr. 



me, that a small book delineating the prominent fea- 
tures of our system, especially at those jDoints most 
virulently assailed, would meet the ease better than a 
large and elaborate polemic. I therefore determined 
to write an antidote rather than a formal answer to 
those books ; to make a work which, placed in the 
hands of a harassed convert, would say to him just 
those things which his pastor would like to say had 
he time and opportunity, and which, being said, 
would effectually fortify him against the influences of 
proselytism. 

Whether I have realized my ideal, or not, the pub- 
lib must now judge. I have written in a style and 
manner adapted to the capacities of young persons ; 
and have illustrated my points, as much as the subjects 
treated permitted, for the purpose of making them 
attractive. My earnest desire is, that the work may 
be instrumental in saving many converts to the Meth- 
oiist church and to Christ, 

DANIEL WISK 

RoxBURY, March 1856 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

DUTY OF CONVERTS TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHTECH. 

The coDTert's confidence requested — The presumed relatior of 
the Convert to Methodism described — His perplexity — A 
temptation and its source" — Union with the Visible Church es- 
sential to safety — Crossing the Atlantic in an open boat — The 
lost steam-ship — The illustration applied — Voices of reason 
and experience — Buoys in channels — ^Tiat they teach — 
The Visible Church and what it teaches of the will of Christ 
— Queries — The promptings of love — Duty to celebrate the 
death of Christ requires church-membership — A temptation 
described — The voyager's idle resolve — The illustration ap- 
plied, 11-22 

CHAPTER n. 

IIETHODIST CO^TS'EETS SHOULD JOIX A METHODIST CHUPXH. 

The Convert considered as a child of Methodism — A providence 
in spiritual parentage — The providential lesson — Spiritual 
sympathy, the need of a Convert — Sympathy most likely to 
be found in the house of one's spiritual birth — Prospects of 
a Methodist Convert in other churches — The animus of Cal- 
vinist churches unfriendly to Methodism — Proofs — Recep- 
tion of Cooke's Centuries and the Great Iron "\Mieel by Cal 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



viuist churches — Inferences — The sea-boy's home fedings 
— The illustration applied — Converts should not join churches 
whose creeds they do not believe — Agnes Stanley, the mar- 
tyr — The illustration applied — The path of duty — Poetic 
extract, , 23-42 



CHAPTER m. 

MEANS OF GRACE PECULIAP. TO METHODISM. 

The ancient crusader — His preparations — Duty of Convert . to 
select the church most fitted to help him to heaven — Claims 
of the Methodist E. Church — Its culture of the elements of 
the spiritual life — Love to God — Faith — The preaching of 
Methodism — Its hymns and services — The doctrines of 
Methodism as related to spiritual culture — Institutions of 
Methodism — Their influence on Christian activity — Itine- 
rancy — Provisions for Christian fellowship — Fellowship a 
necessity of the spiritual life — Primitive Christians — Ex- 
perience of deeply pious men — Mr. Wesley's visit to Ger- 
many in search of Christian fellowship — Dr. Chalmers — 
The class-meeting — Its object and uses — Love feasts — 
Their antiquity — Quotation from Coleman — Summary of 
the chapter, 42-63 



CHAPTER IV. 

OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 

Portrait of Jean Paul Richter — The truth it embodies — Ob- 
jections to the class-meeting considered — The conscience not 
hardened by it — A false assumption exposed — The class 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



meeting not a confessional — It does not promote insincerity — 
Its fitness to develop the Christian life — Band meetings — 
Views of pious men of other denominations — Opinion of an 
Episcopal editor — Testimony of a Congregationalist pastor — 
Opinion of a British critic — The Spaniard's spectacles — 
Spectacled critics of Methodism — Experience of fifteen con- 
verts examined — The Methodist prayer-meeting — Its ear 
nestness an argument m its favor — The Czar of Eussia sav- 
ing a peasant — The illustration applied — The dancing 
master and the martyr — Liberty of women in the Methodist 
church — Scriptural authority — Texts examined — Dr. A. 
Clarke quoted — PrisciUa — Tryphena — Tryphosa — Persis 
— Clarke's note on these holy women — Laughable instance 
of the ignorance of a writer against Methodism — Secret of 
opposition to ^Methodism — Poetic extract, .... 64-94 



CHAPTER V. 

DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

Italian proverb — Relation between doctrine and conduct — The 
creed of Methodism — Its fundamental doctrines evangelical — 
The twenty-five articles — Their origin — Statement of Meth- 
odist doctrines — Antiquity of the distinguishing tenets of 
Methodism — Augustine the inventor of a new theology — 
Calvinism not taught m the Bible — Historic argument — The 
doctrines of the Reformation — Arminius — Brief sketch of 
his life — The synod of Dort — Its crueltv^ to the Arminians — 
Methodist Arminianism not identical with the Pelagianism of 
the earlier Congregationalists — Quotation from Tracy and 
Edwards — Pelagianism described — Testimony of the Secre- 
tary of the Home Missionary Society — Methodist doctrines 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



not Romanist — The Eomanists tolerate both, creeds — Cal- 
vinism largely represented in the Romish church — Methodist 
doctrines always powerful for good — Calvinism distressing 
and dangerous. 95-122 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

The Banian tree — Methodism a phenomenon — Its source — 
The two Wesleys — John Wesley its true founder — Sketch 
of his life — His birth, education, and introduction to the min- 
istry—The Holy Club — Persecution — The Holy Club not 
the origin of Methodism proper — The first Wesleyan society 

— Mr. Wesley in Georgia — His persecutions there — His re- 
turn — "Whitefield's testimony to the purity of his lif^ — Wes- 
ley's conversion — Peter Bohler — Wonderful effects of Wes- 
ley's preaching — Wesley's prodigious labors — Temble per- 
secution of the Wesleys and their followers — Wesley's 
triumphant death — Resemblances between Wesley and Lu- 
ther — Wesley's work, 123-164 

CHAPTER VII. 

RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 

The smitten rock — The birth of Methodism divine — The Wes- 
leyan Pentecost — Results — Rise of Methodism in America 

— Philip Embury — Barbara Hick — Captain Webb — Rob- 
ert Strawbridge — Growth of the mustard seed — A false as- 
sertion corrected — Increase of American Methodism by de- 
cades — Percentage and ratio of its increase for half a 



CONTENTS. 



ix 



centiirr — Growth of Methodism in New England — Causes 
which checked the ratio of its progress between 1840 and 
1850 — Growth of New England Methodism compared to the 
growth of the Congregationalisms and Baptists — Valuable ta- 
bles — God in the gi'owth of Methodism, .... 165-185 

CHAPTER Vni. 

SPIEITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 

State of England at the rise of i\Iethodism — A gloomy picture 

— Testimony of Dr. Isaac Taylor, Dr. Morrison, Dr. Corbett, 
Rev. James Robie — Spiritual condition of America at the 
rise of Methodism — Whitefield's statements — Other testi- 
monies — Apostacy of the Puritan churches after "\^^litefield's 
visit — Methodism a bright particular star in two hemispheres 

— Its powerful effects in England and in America — Testi- 
monies of Morrison, Cecil, Chalmers, Robert Hall, Laurie, Dr. 
Tyng, etc. — Present spiritual vitality of Methodism — A silly 
assertion answered — God the strength of Methodism, 186-202 

CHAPTER IX. 

METHODIST CHURCH G0TEEXME:ST. 

Spectre of the Brocken — The illustration applied — The allega- 
tions of Messrs. Graves and Cooke — The charge of despotism 
false — The occasion of the charge — An a priori argument — 
What is despotism — No absolute authority in Methodism — 
All its officers responsible — No coercive power in Methodism 

— Its corner stone — Its power of excommunication consid 
ered — Laymen can be condemned only by the laity — Cen- 



X 



CONTENTS. 



tralization of Methodism — The Episcopacy not a centralized 
power — Power of Methodist bishops — Its limitations — The 
appointing power — Power of the General Conference — Its 
limitations — The question submitted — Methodist church 
property not owned by its ministry — The motive and aim of 
Methodist church government — The itinerancy — Its sacrifices 
and success — Lay influence in Methodism — Address to the 
reader, 203-241 



APPENDIX. 

No. 1. Pelagianism and Arminianism contrasted, . . . 243 

No. 2. Calvinism in 1855 — Of God's eternal decree — Of 
effectual calling — Of the perseverance of the saints, . 245 



No. 3. Extracts from various authors, showing that 
infant damnation is a logical sequence of Calvin- 
istic principles, 



248 



THE CONYERrS COMSELLOK 



CHAPTER I. 

DUTY OF COXYERTS TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 

CHRISTIAN reader, will you 
give me your attention, and 
permit me to commune with 
you awhile, in the spirit of a 
friend and fellow disciple ? We 
are strangers to each other in the 
^flesh, but are we not united in holy 
brotherhood, through our mutual faith in Je- 
sus ? Do not our hearts beat in hallowed 
sympathy, as we bow together in spirit, at 
the feet of Him whose death was our life, 
whose love is our consolation, whose pro- 
mises are the light of our steps ? Accept, 
then, my hand, with a brother's heart in it. 




12 



DUTY OF CONYERTS 



Give me your confidence. You are a young 
pilgrim just entering the way of life. I en- 
tered that sacred path in my youth. For 
nearly twenty-five years I have journeyed 
in it. I have mingled much with men, have 
seen life in many phases^ have enjoyed 
much; suffered much. I know somewhat^ 
therefore, of the human heart, and have gath- 
ered some of the fruits of experience. View- 
ing you as a convert just entering upon novel 
experiences, subjected to manifold tempta- 
tions, doubtful of yourself, anxious to do 
right, yet liable to be misled, I feel my heart 
warm toward you, and am desirous to give 
you such counsels as I know will benefit 
you, if you accept and follow them. Will 
you then give me your attention and confi- 
dence ? 

I address you as recently converted, but 
as undecided concerning your church rela- 
tions. You have been led to Christ, I will 
presume, through the instrumentality of 
Methodism. If left to your own unbiased 



TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 



13 



judgment; you "vrould unhesitatingly unite 
with the Methodist church. But your asso- 
ciates, relatives, or personal friends are 
hostile to Methodism. Perhaps you reside 
in a community where Methodism is crushed 
down and trodden under foot by proud, in- 
fluential; sectarian men. False views of 
Methodism, the offsprings of a prejudice 
which is willingly ignorant of its true char- 
acter and spirit; are whispered in your 
ears. So much is said to you, by persons 
you have ever esteemed, that your mind is 
perplexed and unsettled. You hesitate and 
wait. You do not feel entirely free to re- 
linquish Methodism. You are too deeply 
indebted to it to turn from it readily; yet 
in consequence of what has been said to you 
by others, your mind is not satisfied with 
respect to your duty to enter into church 
relation with it. Like a weaver's shuttle, 
you are tossed to and fro, and amid these 
perplexities, you are tempted to join no 
church at all. 



14 



DUTY OF CONVERTS 



Permit me to be plain with you at this 
point, my dear young friend. The sugges- 
tion to join no church is from the great 
adversary of your soul, The friends who 
harass you that they may alienate you from 
Methodism, are responsible for so disturb- 
ing your wonted serenity as to fit you for 
the solicitations of the tempter. But you 
must resist him, nevertheless. You must 
join some branch of the visible church of 
Christ.- Not to do so is to peril the safe- 
ty of your soul. 

Some time ago, a bold but reckless sea- 
man determined to attempt the passage of 
the Atlantic alone in an open boat. It was 
a daring thought, but he was strong in pur- 
pose, and he made the trial successfully. 
Alone in his frail bark, he crossed the 
mighty deep, braved all its dangers, outrode 
its storms, and landed safely on the oppo- 
site shore. 

Since then, a noble steamship, like levia- 
than for size, like the eagle for swiftness, 



TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 15 

like behemoth for strength^ while attempting 
the same passage, rushed upon an unseen 
vessel. The concussion opened the steam- 
er's gigantic bosom to the TvaveS; and like 
a dead monster of the deep, she sunk, with 
scores of her affrighted voyagers, to the 
invisible caverns of the seas. 

Thus a voyage -vrhich was safely made by 
a solitary seaman in an open boat, proved 
fatal to scores who attempted it in a noble 
steamship. But would you, therefore, prefer 
the open boat to the steamer if you were 
about to cross the ocean? 

You would not. Keasoning upon these 
facts, you would say, that the seaman in the 
open boat was foolhardy. The probabilities 
were all against him. His exploit is not 
fit to be imitated, for it could hardly be 
repeated by himself or any other man. Of 
the steamship, you would say the few who 
perished by her fatal mishap were excep- 
tions. Most who cross the seas in such 
vessels do so with safety, and, therefore,, the 



16 



DUTY OF CONVERTS 



steamship is infinitely preferable to the open 
boat. 

Do you not perceive the application of 
these illustrations to the question which 
now perplexes you? Do you think of sail- 
ing over the sea of life alone, without the 
fellowship of the visible church? Behold 
the folly of such a purpose in the rashness 
of that daring seaman. Like him, you may, 
after many frightful experiences, land safely 
on the bright shore beyond. But alas, all 
the probabilities are against you. You are 
more likely to be wrecked beneath some 
treacherous wave, than to outsail the perils 
of the voyage. Thus reason points you 
toward the church. Experience directs to 
the same path. Of the many who have at- 
tempted a voyage to heaven out of the 
Christian church, nearly all have lost their 
way, while yet almost in sight of the point 
of their departure. On the contrary, though 
some who join the visible church, do, like 

Hymenbus and Alexander, make shipwreck 

' 



TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHUECH. 17 

of faith, yet the far greater number 
outride every storm; and land safely on the 
shore beyond the flood. All experience de- 
clares in favor of the safety of seeking 
heaven by way of the church : it shows the 
attempt to reach it independent of the 
church to be perilous in the extreme. Hence 
your desire to make your salvation as sure 
as possible, if guided by the voices of reason 
and experience, will lead you to unite with 
some branch of the Christian church. 

Along the channels leading to harbors oi 
difficult approach, it is not uncommon to 
see lines of painted buoys. Those silent 
but restless monitors serve the weary mari- 
ner as guides and protectors. Though 
voiceless, they assure him that the citizens 
of that port have sounded those waters and 
placed those lines of buoys to intimate that 
it is safe to steer within them, but danger- 
ous to sail without them. Wisely heedful 
of their teaching, he guides his bark along 
the channel and enters the haven with a 
2 



18 



DUTY OP CONVERTS 



joyous heart. Were he blindly unmindful 
of their presence ; were he, in a spirit of 
self-conceited vanity, to despise them, and 
run his ship upon sunken rocks or treacher- 
ous banks, who would pity him ? Would not 
all men blame him for his folly ? Would he 
not stand silent and self condemned in pres- 
ence of a blabbing world? 

Now, as these buoys authoritatively, yet 
kindly, point out the only safe course for the 
sea-worn mariner, so the existence of the 
visible church, erected and preserved by 
Christ himself, is a divine proclamation, 
that through its sacred portals the only safe 
path to heaven runs. Would Jesus have 
founded it, joined his first disciples to it, 
called it his "body," "loved it," and pre- 
served it, as by a perpetual miracle even 
against the " gates of hell," if it were not 
necessary to the salvation of his followers ? 
Did its institution spring from the sugges- 
tions of caprice, or was it the outgrowth of 
his wisdom and love ? You will surely 



TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 19 

acknowledge it to be the latter. How then 
can you neglect to join yourself to it, with- 
out despising his wisdom, exhibiting a 
measure of self-will utterly unbecoming in 
a disciplC; risking your salvation, and ex- 
posing yourself to the fate of him whose 
scornful rejection of the wedding garment 
overwhelmed him with speechless shame, 
when he was arraigned at the tribunal of his 
offended Lord? 

Nor can you refuse to join the visible 
church without at least a show of unkindness, 
utterly inconsistent with that love for Cfirist 
which you profess. It is the nature of love 
to yield itself to the wishes of its object. 
Love is obedient. It does not hesitate to 
do, to suffer, or to die, if need be, to please 
its beloved. What a poor starveling your 
love will appear, if you decline to submit to 
the undoubted will of Christ on a point 
which, while it requires no real sacrifice, is 
almost absolutely necessary to your salva- 
tion. Your refusal must at least expose 



20 



DUTY OP CONVERTS 



your profession of love to merited suspi- 
cion. 

Besides, if you stand unconnected with 
the visible church, how can you "eat the 
body" and drink the blood" of Christ? 
" Do this in remembra?ice of me," is not a 
mere request : it is a command. If it were 
only a whispered wish, your affection for 
Christ should lead you to regard it as an 
imperial law. But it is more than a wish. 
It is an unconditional command, invested with 
peculiar sacredness, because given on the eve 
of that awful hour, which witnessed the dy- 
ing agonies of your Saviour. A wish to 
evade it is treason to Christ. You cannot 
therefore desire to neglect it. But how can 
you obey it unless you become a member 
of the visible church ? for it is not a secret 
commemoration of his death that he re- 
quires, but an open partaking of its emblems 
in the company of his disciples. Are you 
not therefore bound to become a member 



TO JOIN THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 21 

of the visible church, by the command which 
bids you partake of the holy supper? 

It is not uncommon for converts, harassed 
as I suppose you to be, about their church 
relation, to be tempted to say: ^^I would 
join the church if there was only one de- 
nomination. But I am confused because of 
the multitude of sects, claiming to be 
churches of Christ; therefore, I will join 
none." 

Fallacious conclusiai! Behold its folly. 
Yonder is a man intending to cross the seas. 
Seeking a ship, he finds the wharves crowded 
with every variety of craft — schooner, brig, 
ship, clipper, and steamship. The owners 
of each insist on the superiority of their 
particular vessel. After hearing their pleas, 
the intendirg voyager exclaims, " There are 
so many vessels, I am confused. I know 
not which to select. I will sail in neither of 
them. I will swim across the seas alone ! " 

Now, I know ycu pronounce this resolu- 
tion absurd in the highest degree — too ab- 



22 



DUTY OP CONVERTS, ETC. 



surd for any sane man to adopt. Common 
sense, you think, would teach such a man 
to select that craft which his judgment, 
after due examination, most approved. 
Exactly so. Go then, beloved convert, and 
follow the dictates of sound common sense 
with respect to the multitude of sects around 
you. Their number and variety result from 
the necessary diversity of human opinions ; 
and, constituted as the human mind is, their 
multiplicity is probably a good rather than 
an evil. Let not this fact stumble you, 
therefore, but after a due investigation of 
their respective claims, select the one which 
your judgment can best approve, and join 
yourself to its communion. Remember your 
safety, your duty, your obligations to Christ, 
all bind you to become a member of the 
visible church. 

" And THE LORD ADDED to the chuvch daily 
such as should be saved^ 

"J had rather he a door-keeper in the 
house of my Godj than to dwell in the 
tents of wickedness.^^ 



CHAPTLR II. 




METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN A METHODIST 
CHURCH. 

HAIL you, dear reader, as a 
child of Methodism. Your 
parents may have educated you 
in a different faith. Your 
past associations may have been 
the followers of another creed. 
Your personal friends may wor- 
ship at other altars. Nevertheless, having 
been converted to Christ through Metho- 
dist instrumentalities, you are a child 
of Methodism ! God sent Methodism to 
you, as he sent Ananias to Saul of Tarsus, 
that it might become your spiritual parent. 
It found you a poor unawakened sinner. 
It alarmed you, persuaded you, led you to 
the cross, taught you how to believe, en- 



24 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD. JOIN 

conraged your first acts of trust, and led 
you, with the solicitude of a mother, through 
the earliest steps of your experience in the 
way of faith. Under God, you owe your 
spiritual life to it. Are you not, then, one 
of the children of Methodism ? Is not the 
Methodist church your spiritual mother? 

Did it ever strike you that there is a 
providence in this delightful relation be- 
tween you and Methodism ? It must be so, 
for so important a fact as your spiritual pa- 
rentage could not have been left to chance. 
As a Christian, you utterly eschew the no- 
tion of chance. You recognise the guiding 
hand of God in every event, both great and 
small, from the upholding of the spheres to 
the fall of a sparrow. You must, therefore, 
concede that providence was directly con- 
cerned in bringing you into your very 
interesting relationship with Methodism. 
Perhaps a little reflection, on the various 
steps by which you have been led, will 
unfold to your mind numerous combinations 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



25 



of eventS; all tending to this result, and 
demonstrating the presence of an invisible 
but Almighty agency. Can you explain the 
facts of your recent history on any other 
principle ? If you deny it, are they not 
mysterious and inexplicable — a tangled 
labyrinth which you cannot explore ? But 
if you admit it, everything, though wonder- 
ful and overwhelming, is at least intelligible 
and plain. Ought you not then to con- 
sider that the providence of God, made you 
the spiritual child of Methodism? 

But does not this fact teach its lesson? 
May it not shed some light on the question 
of your church relation ? Is there no indica- 
tion of the divine will in these mysterious 
leadings of his providence ? Why did your 
Heavenly Father select a Methodist preacher 
to be the instrument of your awakening, 
and a Methodist altar to be the scene of 
your conversion? He could have led you 
within the sphere of other, perhaps nearer, 
instrumentalities. Why then did He lead 



26 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN 

you rather out of their way, and bring you 
into spiritual relationship with the great 
Methodist family, if not to teach you that 
your spiritual interests could be better pro- 
moted within its bosom than elsewhere ? 
I will not positively affirm that this is the 
lesson of the fact, because I can conceive 
of exceptional cases, in which it would not 
be proper for a convert to join the church 
of his spiritual parentage ; but I do sincere- 
ly submit this question to your judgment: 
Do not those providences which brought you 
within the influence of Methodism, give at 
least an intimation, that it is the divine 
will you should fix your spiritual home 
within its enclosures ? I beg you to resolve 
this question on your knees. 

By uniting with the church which has been 
the instrument of your conversion, you will 
meet with a spiritual sympathy such as you 
can hardly expect to find in another de- 
nomination. 

As a young convert you stand in special 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



27 



need of the sympathy and aid of spiritual 
minds. This need will continue until your 
experience matures, and you acquire strength 
through conflict and endurance. Your faith 
is "vveak and vacillating — a reed shaken by 
the wind. Your love, though glowing; is 
wavering — a flame flickering in a draught of 
air. In strength, you are a lamb shivering 
in the chilly atmosphere of an ungenial 
spring. In skill to resist the Tempter, you 
are as an inexperienced youth walking amidst 
the snares of practiced wickedness. Thus 
feeble and harassed, you often sink into 
" great deeps" of despondency, where a " hor- 
ror of great darkness," like that which fell on 
the patriarch Abraham, encompasses your 
trembling spirit. Then, you challenge the 
reality of your conversion, and are ready to 
"cast away your confidence." Then, like a 
frighted child, you need to be folded in 
the warm breast of Christian sympathy, that 
your fear may be calmed, your heart cheered 
into a renewal of your acts of faith, by the 



28 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN 

whispers of a tender and patient brotherly 
affection. 

Now, where will you be so likely to find 
this sympathy as with those who regard you 
as their spiritual child? They have wit- 
nessed the process of your conversion, en- 
tered into your feelings, mingled their tears 
with yours, struggled with you in the ago- 
nies of your penitential hour, soared with 
you on the wings of faith to the Mediator's 
feet, and blended their voices with yours in 
the first songs of praise which broke from 
your renewed heart. Hence, they love you 
as the child of their labors and affections. 
They have confidence in your profession of 
faith. They are eminently fitted to sympa- 
thize with you, to weep over your sorrows and 
to rejoice over your joys. Is it prudent 
to tear yourself away from such sympathy ? 
Is it safe? 

I do not affirm that you cannot find genu- 
ine Christian sympathy in a church of another 
name, because wherever there is true piety 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



29 



there is more or less of sympathy with the 
lambs of Christ's flock. But I do seriously 
doubt the probability of your finding such 
sympathy as you now enjoy in the house of 
your spiritual parentage. Remember, that 
being a child of Methodism, you will be but 
an adopted child in any other branch of 
the Christian church. You will feel this fact 
painfully, if you leave your true home. So 
long as you are the object of a zealous prose- 
lytism, the confidence and sympathy of those 
who seek to win you to their ranks will 
appear strong and deep. But when you have 
once crossed the Rubicon, and stand among 
them as a candidate for church membership, 
a change will be visible in the spirit of your 
new friends. Having lured you from Metho- 
dism, they will seek to divest you of every 
shred of the Methodistic garment, and to 
shape the manifestations of your experience 
in their own denominational mold. They will 
scrutinize your conversion, and challenge its 
genuineness, because it was obtained among 



30 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN 

the Methodists. It will be well if they do 
not lead you to cast it aside as mere excite- 
ment, and leave you to grope through mist 
and unbelief after new light, so that, after 
all, you may date your new birth from the 
period of your connection with them, and 
thus lose your sense of obligation to your 
true spiritual parent. But if you should 
escape so severe an ordeal, you will, at least, 
be speedily taught by significant shrugs and 
chilling glances, if not by direct rebuke, that 
allusions to your indebtedness to Methodism 
are regarded as a mark of bad taste, as an 
offense, as a sign of disloyalty to your new 
friends. In a word, you will have to ignore 
your spiritual parentage or be regarded as a 
speckled bird, an oddity, to be endured but not 
received to the entire confidence of the church. 

Perhaps you think these remarks are the 
outflowings of prejudice on the part of the 
writer. I assure you they are not. I love 
and respect every branch of the Christian 
church; and believe that multitudes among 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



31 



them would scorn to do such things as I 
have described. But facts are stubborn 
things; and they prove thafc the animus 
of the leading Calvinist denominations is 
decidedly unfriendly to Methodism — so 
unfriendly as to look upon it with a cer- 
tain affectation of contempt, and to speak 
incredulously, if not with absolute doubt, of 
the genuineness of its religious experiences 
The existence of this unfriendly animus 
is proved by certain recent publications, and 
the manner in which they have been received 
by the denominations they represent. In 
one of these works, written by a prominent 
Congregationalist minister,"^ it is boldly as- 
serted that "Methodism is not a branch of 
the church of Christ;" that "its aggression 
is not one of a true religion but of a false ; " 
that Methodist revivals are " simply corrup- 
tions of revivals," "no part of Christianity, 
but scandals in its way ; " that they consti- 
tute " what may be called a religious com- 



* Rev. Parsons Cooke. 



32 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN 

edyf^ that they are "comic operations; " and 
that of Methodist conversions about nine- 
tenths of the whole are found to be spurious 
after a longer or shorter trial ! ! " 

Now the volume which contains these 
statements has been endorsed by most of 
the leading presses of the Congregational 
and Presbyterian churches, and by many of 
their chief ministers and home missionaries 
in various parts of the country. I know 
there are numerous individuals in those 
denominations, who dissent strongly from 
the views of this writer ; yet their dissent 
cannot be general^ it cannot exist in the most 
influential quarters, or it would find expres- 
sion in earnest protests through the press. 
The fact that no such protest has appeared, 
except in a single instance in which the pro- 
testant was originally a Methodist minister, 
taken in connection with the endorsements 
it has received, proves that the animus of 
that book is in harmony with the animus of 
the above named churches. 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



33 



Another volume from the pen of a Baptist 
minister,"^ written in the same, spirit, and 
placing Methodism outside the pale of 
Evangelism, has been received with similar 
favor among the Baptists. 

These are melancholy facts, which it is 
painful even to record. I do not name them 
to create prejudices in your breast against 
Christians of other churches, but merely to 
sustain what has been said concerning their 
views of Methodist conversions. They do 
cherish a great doubt concerning the genu- 
ineness of a Methodist conversion. How, 
then, can you, who are a Methodist convert, 
go among them without having the sound- 
ness of your conversion doubted? without 
being subjected to a suspicious scrutiny which 
it is painful to an honorable mind to endure ? 
How, under such circumstances, can you hope 
to find that spiritual sympathy in their commu- 
nions which is one of the great wants of your 



* The Great Iron Wheel, by Rev. J. R. Graves. 

3 



34 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN 



renewed life ? Plainly you cannot. Are you, 
then, at liberty to put your salvation in 
peril by rushing from the warm atmosphere 
of love and sympathy which now surrounds 
you, into one of cold and unsympathizing 
scrutiny and suspicion? 

A poet has given beautiful expression to 
the desire which carries an inexperienced 
youth to sea, and which is succeeded by a 
desire to return home a thousand fold more 
intense, in the following lines : 

" See how from port the vessel glides, 

With streamered masts o'er halcyon tides : 
Its laggard course the sea-boy chides, 

All loth that calms should bind him; 
But distance only chains him more 
With love links to his native shore. 
And sleep's best dream is to restore 
The home he left behind him." 

In my walks as a pastor, I have met 
with many persons whose experience in the 
matter of their church relation resembled 
that of the poet's " sea-boy." When they 
were young converts, the attentions of influ- 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 35 

ential men, the appeal to their yanity which 
was conveyed in the attempt to proselyte 
them; the idea of finding a culture or a social 
status superior to Methodism, filled them 
with desire, like that of the sea-boy, to 
leave the sunny port of Methodism, where 
they were converted, and to enter another 
church. But once away from their true 
spiritual home, like the sea-boy, they missed 
its genial spirit, its warm, hearty sympathies, 
and yet felt bound to it by love-links 
they could not break. They regretted what 
they had done, yet did not feel free to re- 
trace their steps. They were unsatisfied 
and ill at ease in the relation they had cho- 
sen, and longed for a fair opportunity to 
return to their true spiritual home. And 
such, beloved reader, may be your expe- 
rience if you suffer yourself to be beguiled 
from your true spiritual home by any motive 
lower than a conviction of duty. 

I have said that Providence, by giving yon 
your spiritual parentage in the house of 



S6 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN 

Methodism, indicated its will concerning your 
true church home. I say indicated because 
there may be circumstances which would ren- 
der it improper for a convert to unite with 
the church which led him to Christ. Should 
that church, for example, hold doctrines 
which he does not believe, it could not be 
his duty to join it. To profess faith in 
dogmas which the understanding rejects, is a 
violation of the law of truth. Whoever does 
80, corrupts his moral nature and offends 
God. Hence, in determining your church 
relation, you are solemnly bound to consider 
the question of creeds. Should you delib- 
erately profess a creed which you do not 
heartily believe, you would certainly peril, if 
not assuredly forfeit, your peace of mind. 
You must be honest before God. 

" I had rather every hair of my head were 
burned, if it were never so much worth, than 
that I should forsake my faith and opinion, 
which is the true faith." 

Such was the noble utterance of Agne3 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



37 



Stanley, when she stood in presence of 
Bishop Bonner, charged with heresy and 
threatened with martyrdom. A fiery death 
awaited her if she persisted in maintaining 
her opinions. Life and liberty were hers, 
would she but profess a faith she did not 
believe. But her noble soul spurned a life 
which could not be retained except at the 
price of falsehood. And for simply main- 
taining her convictions, she passed through 
the fires of Smithfield to the realms of 
ineffable delight. 

Was Agnes Stanley right ? Was it worthi 
while to sacrifice life for opinion^s sake ? 
Aye, it was. Had she through fear of death, 
stained her soul with falsehood, she would 
have forfeited self-respect, the admiration of 
the good, and the favor of God. 

But if Agnes Stanley did right, what shall 
we say of those modern Christians who 
profess a creed they do not believe ? 1 
have frequently referred members of Calvin- 
ist churches to their creeds and covenants, 



38 METHODIST CONVERTS SHOULD JOIN 

as teaching ultra Calyinism, and they have 
replied, "0, we don't believe that. We 
think pretty much as you do." Alas, what 
a dull perception of the claims of truth and 
honor such replies imply ! The parties had 
publicly, solemnly, consciously, professed a 
creed which their understandings rejected. 
Their profession was therefore a perpetual 
lie. Such minds would have no trouble 
with Bishop Bonner. The fires of Smithfield 
would never fright them. The spirit of 
Agnes Stanley is not in them. Can you de- 
eire to tread in their steps ? 

Now, I take it for granted that in doctrine 
you are a Methodist. You believe in the 
great truth of universal atonement. You 
believe that Jesus " tasted death for every 
man;'' that grace, quickening and saving, is 
tendered to every man, rendering every man 
morally able to accept the Saviour; that 
freedom from the guilt and dominion of sin, 
is attainable in this life, and that a truly 
converted man may so fall away as to finally 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



39 



perish. Believing these truths, I do not see 
how YOU can join a Calvinist church without 
incurring the guilt of a perpetual lie ! For 
Calvinism teaches altogether another doc- 
trine. Its atonement, though nominally uni- 
versal, is in fact an atonement for the elect 
onlyj because none else can by any possi- 
bility be saved by it. It teaches that effect- 
ual or saving grace is given to the elect 
alone ; that sin must retain a measure of its 
power over a believer so long as he remains 
in the flesh ; and that when once a man is 
truly converted, his final salvation is a cer- 
tainty — he cannot fall so as to finally perish. 
To these odious doctrines you must subscribe 
if you enter a Calvinist church. Its creed 
may be written so as to keep its most offen- 
sive dogmas in the shade, but its construction 
is as I have stated. If then you are a Meth- 
odist in your doctrinal opinions, you cannot 
subscribe to the creed of a Calvinist church 
without setting your hand to a deliberate 
falsehood. Are you not then bound by the 



40 METHODIST CONYERTS SHOULD JOIN 

dictates of truth and honor to unite with 
the Methodist church ? 

Let me illustrate this point with a fact. 
I knew a gentleman who, at the time of his 
conversion, was solicited to unite with a 
Calvinist church. He objected, saying: " My 
doctrinal opinions are not in harmony with 
your articles of faith." 

" 0, never mind that," replied the pastor. 
"I will represent you to the Committee. 
You need not appear before them at all." 

Satisfied with this acceptance of his pro- 
test against its Calvinism, he consented to 
join the church. But when he presented 
himself for that purpose, the creed and 
covenant were read to him, and he found 
he was expected to give his assent to opin- 
ions against which he had uttered his sol- 
emn protest to the pastor. He felt like 
one entrapped. But, hesitating to explain 
himself so publicly, he reluctantly yielded to 
the circumstances, and was admitted to the 
church. 



A METHODIST CHURCH. 



41 



Still his conscience was ill at ease. He 
was dissatisfied both with himself and his 
pastor. With himself, because he was pro- 
fessing doctrines which his understanding 
rejected ; with his pastor, for having caught 
him with guile. Many and severe were his 
mental struggles as to his duty. At length, 
being moved to make an entire consecration 
of himself to God, he saw clearly that he 
must either renounce his false doctrinal pro- 
fession, or to use his own words, go to 
hell.'' He hesitated no longer. He broke 
the chain which bound him to a Calvinist 
church, found peace of mind, united with a 
Methodist church, and subsequently became 
a preacher of the gospel. That he did right 
in thus honestly conforming his profession 
to his faith, you will not deny. What then ? 
Go thou, and do likewise. 

You must, above all things, maintain your 
integrity. Depend upon it there is safety in 
the path of duty only. 



CHAPTER III. 




MEANS OP GRACE PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

V 

JHEN the ancient Crusader, in- 
flamed with desire to rescue the 
Holy Land from the sceptre of 
the Saracen, consecrated him- 
self to that romantic enterprise, he 
at once threw his whole soul into 
the work of preparation. Regarding 
his pilgrimage as the grand object of his life, 
he sacrificed every other interest and affec- 
tion at its shrine. He forsook his dearest 
friends; sold his domains; alienated his 
rights of sovereignty ; and lavished his gold 
that he might contribute to the success of 
the crusade. In making preparation for 
his military duties, he purchased armor of 
proof, weapons of truest temper, steeds of 
highest mettle; he selected for his leaders 
men of true courage and sagacity, and chose 



MEANS OF GRACE, ETC. 



43 



a route most likely to lead him speedily and 
safely to the scene of conflict. Thus he 
surrendered everything to the claim of his 
souVs ideal of duty and glory. 

May you not, beloved convert, learn a 
lesson from the Crusader's spirit? Does 
not his action exhibit, in bold relief, the 
principle which should guide you in deter- 
mining your church relation ? Like him you 
have consecrated yourself to a great life 
work — an infinitely greater work than his. 
His object was to stand a conqueror on the 
spot of his Lord's crucifixion ; yours is to 
stand victorious before the throne of your 
Saviour's glory. If his ideal led him to 
make stern sacrifices, and to adopt a course 
of self-discipline adapted to the end he had 
chosen for himself, ought not yours to bind 
you to similar sacrifices and discipline ? 
Ought you not to subject all your actions 
to the demands of your purpose to reach 
heaven ? Ought not all your voluntary rela- 
tions to society to be determined by the 



44 



MEANS OP GRACE 



question of their fitness to contribute to 
your great life aim ? Above all, should not 
your church relation be settled by the adap- 
tation of the particular church you may se- 
lect to promote your salvation ? 

If to these interrogatories you respond 
affirmatively, you are bound to select a 
church home with that body of Christians, 
whose spirit, usages, and institutions are best 
fitted to aid you in working out your salva- 
tion. The social status, the wealth, the 
culture of a church, are inferior and subordi- 
nate questions ; though too many converts, to 
their great spiritual loss, have allowed them 
to be controlling and decisive. I hope better 
things of you. I take you to be an earnest 
convert, to whom " all things " are " loss," 
if you may but "win Christ." You will, 
therefore, be governed by the question, 
which church is best fitted by its peculiar 
institutions, doctrines, and spirit to help me 
to heaven ? 

Now if you take this principle for your 



PECULTAR TO METHODISM. 45 



guide, I have no doubt of its leading you 
into the Methodist Episcopal Church. Within 
her enclosures, in addition to all that is val- 
uable in the preaching and ordinances com- 
mon to all Christian denominations, you will 
find some precious advantages, which you 
cannot find outside the pale of Methodism. 
I will name some of them. 

You will find in Methodism such a degree 
of direct and habitual culture of the great 
elements of the Christian lifcj as is found in 
no other denomination. 

The Christian life consists chiefly in the 
exercise of right affections toward God. I 
do not af&rm that it includes nothing more 
than love, because an enlightened ynderstand- 
ing, a submissive will, and an obedient life, 
are essential to it, and are, in fact, included 
in it. But I do assert that love to God, as 
manifested in Christ, is the principal element 
of the Christian life. Love," says Wesley, 
" is the end, the sole end of every dispensa- 
tion of God, from the beginning of the world 



46 



MEANS OF GRACE 



to the consummation of all things and the 
apostle John observes, Every one that 
loveth is born of G-od, and knoweth God/' 
So that he who loves has spiritual life. He 
who loves not is a stranger to that life, 
is dead to God, is not born of God, has not 
spiritual vitality. 

But this love is the offspring of faith, de- 
pends upon faith, grows or declines, as faith 
is stronger or weaker. The truth which 
faith grasps is the germ of love. The divine 
message which faith receives, the glorious 
facts to which it gives credence, constitute 
the food which stimulates love and secures 
its growth. Without faith, love could not 
have birth or growth in the human soul. 
Hence, faith and love are the two grand 
elements of the Christian life. He who 
believes most earnestly, and with the most 
simplicity, will love most. He who has the 
strongest faith and the warmest love will 
have the most spiritual vitality, will grow 
most rapidly in moral power and beauty. 



PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 47 



Now, if you look carefully into the history 
of Methodism, you will find that it has, from 
the beginning, given singular attention to the 
cultivation of these two grand elements of 
the Christian life. 1. In its preaching, its 
literature, its hymns, in its devotional servi- 
ces, in the lives of its founders and repre- 
sentative minds, it has always urged the 
duty of an earnest, undoubting reception of 
the truth, with singular intensity. Its preach- 
ing has entrenched itself in the religious 
consciousness of its hearers, to which it has 
invariably appealed with an authority which 
has proved itself irresistible, and com- 
mandedj so to speak, the belief of men in 
the inspiration of the word of God. An un- 
shrinking faith in the divine word, accom- 
panied by a simple, unrestrained personal 
affection for God in Christ — an individual- 
ized spiritual life" — has been the most 
striking characteristic of its teachings, from 
the day of Mr. Wesley's conversion until 
now. 2. While it has not neglected to in- 



48 



MEANS OF GRACE 



struct its disciples in those great theological 
truths which enlighten the understanding; 
and teach men to conceive right views of 
divine things, it has given especial attention 
to the culture of religious e:q)erience — of 
emotional piety. Other denominations have 
trusted chiefly to the effect of doctrinal and 
ethical disquisitions, without seeking to stim- 
ulate their hearers to the exercise of faith 
and love by direct exhortation and personal 
persuasion. Methodism does both. It un- 
folds the truth. It also habitually enforces 
it with tears, entreaties, exhortations. It 
struggles to relieve men of their doubts and 
fears, and urges them to cast their helpless 
spirits fearlessly upon God in Christ, as on 
the bosom of a Father, who is not merely 
willing, but infinitely anxious to save. The re- 
sult of this has hitherto been a stronger, more 
cheerful faith, a more marked experience, a 
deeper religious emotion, stronger affection 
for God, than have been common in other 
bodies of Christians. 



i 

PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 49 

The peculiar doctrines of Methodism have 
also a direct tendency to stimulate the Chris- 
tian life, and thereby to promote its growth. 

By using the phrase " peculiar doctrines of 
Methodism/' I do not wish it to be under- 
stood that Methodism has introduced any 
novelties into her theology. No. The doc- 
trines of Methodism are as old as the gospel. 
Jesus taught them. So did his apostles and 
their successors; through the purest periods 
of the history of the church. Many of the 
*^ ReformerSj" also, both in England and Ger- 
many, were able advocates of her character- 
istic doctrines. They are not novelties, 
therefore ; though viewed in relation to the 
churches which follow the theological system 
of John Calvin, and to their distinct, earnest 
enunciation, many of them are now peculiar 
to Methodism. 

These peculiar tenets have a beautiful, 
Scriptural fitness to promote faith and love 
in the hearts of men. By teaching the death 
of Jesus to be the price of the gracious pro- 
4 



50 



MEANS OF GRACE 



bation, granted to the human race for the 
express purpose of restoring to righteous- 
ness as many as would consent to be regene- 
rated by the Divine Spirit, Methodism ex- 
hibits the character of God in a light so just, 
so impartial, so loving, so earnest to save, 
that men have little ground left to cavil or to 
doubt, and none to presume ; while they are 
powerfully moved to love and seek God, who 
is seen to be at once both good and just. 
By its clear enunciation of the doctrines of 
justification by faith only, of the witness 
of the Spirit, of the possibility of complete 
victory over sin, it awakens the hopes, satis- 
fies the aspirations, and encourages the 
efforts of such as seek to be Christians 
indeed. By its theory of the possibility of 
falling from grace so as to finally perish, it 
erects a strong barrier against the return of 
a believer to his old sins. Thus its views of 
truth give it an immense advantage over 
those churches which teach the dogmas of 
Calvin — dogmas which exhibit God in an as- 



PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 51 



pect so repulsive, so uncertain as to whom he 
is willing to save, so partial to his selected 
favoriteS; so unjust to the reprobated; and so 
concealed even from his elect, that it must be 
exceedingly difficult to lead men to exercise 
saving faith, and almost impossible to awaken 
that simple, peaceful, trustful love, which is 
the essence of the Christian life, and the 
glory of Methodist ^' church-life." — The re- 
sult of this advantage is seen in her superior 
growth. Her peculiar doctrines being pe- 
culiarly scriptural, are peculiarly efficacious 
in bringing men to Christ and leading them 
to heaven. 

The peculiar institutions of Methodism are 
also eminently fitted to develope the elements 
of the Christian life. 

The Christian life, like life in all its 
forms, is active. Its tendency is to activity. 
It always seeks to expend its forces in its 
legitimate sphere. Eepel this tendency, 
check this force, and it will roll back upon 
itself and die. To be healthfully developed 



52 



MEANS OF GRACE 



it must be permitted to flow out in fit ex 
pression, in praise, in acknowledgment, in 
acts of obedience, in works of benevolence, 
in the performance of duty. This is its law, 
and it must be obeyed. 

Methodism has always recognized this im- 
portant principle. It is incorporated into 
its very organization, and its peculiar institu- 
tions are therefore admirably fitted to de- 
velop the spiritual life of its members. Look 
at its class meetings, and love feasts : how 
they educate the believer to form the habit 
of giving expression to the conceptions of 
faith, and the raptures of love. How they 
lure him to obey that first prompting of the 
religious life, to attempt the salvation of 
others, of which every true disciple is con- 
scious. How suggestive, too, of social duties 
are those meetings, providing as they do an 
opportunity for the confession of faults, the 
utterances of desire, and the admonitions of 
wisdom. So, also, the Methodistic prayer 
meeting is an arena for the development 



PECULIAE TO METHODISM. 53 



of the spiritual life. It is a battle-field, in 
which every member is taught to win souls, 
to fight for the extension of Christ's king- 
dom. Lay preaching is also productive of 
much enlargement to the spiritual life of 
Methodism. By introducing thousands of 
valuable minds into spheres of activity, it 
developes their life, and leads to the increase 
of that life in others. Nor is the itinerancy 
of Methodism without its influence in this 
direction. By the frequent introduction of 
new pastors into its pulpits, it ensures the 
constant, varied, energetic enunciation of 
those great fundamental truths of our holy 
religion, which, applied by the Divine Spirit, 
become the germ and nutriment of the divine 
life to those who receive them. 

We doubt if the constant preaching of 
these great, central, saving truths is possible 
to a settled ministry, which is compelled to 
distribute general truths, and occupy itself 
with single points, to avoid sameness and 
repeti/ion. But the itinerancy of Methodism 



54 



MEANS OP GRACE 



keeps them before its congregations, the 
same in substance, but in ever varied forms 
of expression and diverse modes of illustra- 
tion, and thereby becomes a powerful means 
of stimulating the growth of the spiritual 
life. Thus, all that is peculiar to the Metho- 
distic organization, is strikingly — may I not 
add philosophically? — adapted to develop 
the Christian life. 

In its provision for the cultivation of the 
highest forms of Christian fellowship, Meth- 
odism stands peerless among the churches. 

One great purpose of Christianity is to 
unite mankind in bonds of holy fellowship with 
God and with one another. How beautifully 
and tenderly this idea is brought to view in 
the sacerdotal prayer of Christ, where he 
asks for his disciples, " That they all may 
be ONE ; as thou. Father j art in me, and I 
in thee, that they also may be one in us 
* -jf -jf That they may be one, even as we 

ARE ONE ! ! " 

The fellowship portrayed in this passage 



PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 



55 



is no cold; formal; heartless unitV; but com- 
munion and sympathy in the highest possible 
degree; — such communion as exists bet^Yeen 
the Father and the Son, That they may he 
one, EYEX AS WE ARE OXE.'' What ineffable, 
delightful fellowship is this ! It implies," 
says FooTE; in his School of Christ, ^' sympa- 
thy, oneness of mind, mutual understanding 
and agreement, familiar and friendly inter- 
course, the responsiye beat of heart to 
heart; soul answering to soul; as face 
answers to face in water" — a fellowship 
of loye to an unseen Sayiour, a fellowship 
of joyS; hopes and fears, that lie quite beyond 
the circle of a natural man's experience." 

This prayer of Christ finds constant and 
uniyersal utterance in the spiritual aspira- 
tions of his true disciples. One of the first 
desires of the conyerted mind is for such 
fellowship. 0 ! " it exclaimS; that I had 
some one in whom I might discern the re- 
flection of my own soul; and from whom I 
might receiye back again the expression of 



56 



MEAI^S OF GRACE 



my own confiding affection ! It was this 
aspiration^ unchecked by cold suspicion, 
which led the primitive converts to Chris- 
tianity to seek that affectionate communion 
which is so glowingly described by the annal- 
ist of the apostles. " Knit together in love/' 
they met in bands, " continuing daily with one 
accord in the temple, and breaking of bread 
from house to house, did eat their meat with 
gladness and singleness of heart/^ They spoke 
to each other in " psalms, hymns, and spiritual 
songs," rejoiced with those that did rejoice, 
and wept with those that wept. They ex- 
horted one another daily," bore one 
another's burdens," confessed their " faults 
one to another," and prayed " one for 
another." Thus they enjoyed the " commu- 
nion of saints " in a very high degree ; and, 
by their practice, illustrated the method of 
the spiritual life, wherever it is permitted 
to unfold itself unhindered by unscriptural 
prejudices and unevangelical customs. 

If you consult the biography of deeply 



PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 



57 



pious men, of any sect, you will find them, 
when in their healthiest state of mind, seek- 
ing this sort of intercourse with their fellow 
Christians. Mr. Wesley shortly after his 
conversion was so anxious for the fellowship 
of experienced Christians, that he actually 
made a journey from England to Germany, 
that he might enjoy it with the followers 
of Count Zinzendorf, at Hernhutt. His 
motives are stated in his journal in these 
words : — ' 

" My weak mind could not thus bear to be 
sawn asunder. And I hoped the conversing 
with those holy men who were themselves 
living witnesses to the full power of faith, 
and yet able to bear with those that are 
weak, would be a means under God, of so 
establishing my soul, that I might go on 
from faith to faith, and from strength to 
strength.'^ 

The same desire led Dr. Chalmers to 
form a very close spiritual intimacy with his 
friend Mr. J. Anderson. With this gen- 



58 



MEANS OF GRACE 



tleman Dr. 0. enjoyed a very intimate re- 
ligious fellowship. Their intercourse aimed 
at the very thing which the Methodist class 
meeting is designed to accomplish, — the 
communication of religious experience. Dr. 
0. was led to practice it at first, by the im 
pulses of his spiritual life. In the following 
passage he defends it with the skill of a 
philosopher. 

" I am very much interested in the progress 
of your sentiments. This, in the language 
of good but despised Christians, is called the 
communication of your religious experience. 
There is fanaticism annexed to the term ; but 
this is a mere bugbear; and I count it 
strange that that very evidence which is held 
in such exclusive respect in every other de- 
partment of inquiry, should be so despised 
and laughed at when applied to the progress 
of a human being in that greatest of all 
transitions, from a state of estrangement 
to a state of intimacy with God ; from the 
terror of His condemnation to aa affecting 



PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 



59 



sense of His favor, and friendship, and 
reconciled presence ; from the influence of 
earthly and debasing affections, to the influ- 
ence of those new and heavenly principles 
which the Spirit of God establishes in the 
heart of every believer. This is what our 
Saviour calls ^ passed from death unto life.' 
My prayer for both of us is, that 'it may be 
made sure,' and that ' hereby we may know 
that He dwelleth in us and we in Him, that 
he hath given us of His Spirit.' " — Memoirs 
of Dr, Chalmers^ vol. i., p. 255. 

It was to meet this want of the spiritual 
life, that Mr. Wesley introduced the class 
MEETING into the organism of Methodism. 
He knew that the spiritual life of believers 
could not be healthfully developed unless 
they enjoyed constant fellowship with each 
other, and he knew also, that the cultivation 
of such fellowship is a scriptural duty. To 
provide opportunity* for its culture, and to 
prevent its neglect by his followers, he estab- 
lished this meeting. He did not pretend to 



60 



MEANS OF GRACE 



claim divine authority for it; for, in the 
"minutes/' he classed it with 'prudential^ 
and not with instituted'' means of grace. 
But it stands so intimately related to, and is 
so necessary to the proper growth of the 
spiritual life, that regular attendance upon it 
has always been one of the " regulations " 
which the M. E. Church has required her 
members to observe. 

There can be no doubt, that the piety of 
Methodism owes much of its characteristic 
fervor and animation to the influences of its 
class meetings. The peculiar feature of 
the class is the provision it makes for 
the free communication of religious expe- 
rience. Its members, in a spirit of frank, 
affectionate simplicity, unfold the workings 
of the divine life as developed in their 
several experiences. They are thus led to 
discover the identity of the work wrought 
in their hearts by the self same Spirit. If 
one is depressed, tempted, or crushed, he 
learns that his temptations are not peculiar 



PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 



61 



to himself. Others have felt; resisted^ coH' 
quered them ; why may not he ? If one is 
elevated; he finds his joy reciprocated ; while 
his happy experience encourages his compan- 
ions to seek like enlargement of heart. If 
one has erred, the persuasive sympathy of his 
brethren melts him to penitence ; their prayers 
aid him to return to the waiting Shepherd of 
his soul. ThuS; the ignorance of one is 
instructed by the knowledge of another. 
The strong impart their vigor to the weak. 
The unwary learn caution from the wisdom 
of experience. The halting are rebuked. 
Those who run well are confirmed, and en- 
couraged to persevere. 

Besides the class meeting, Methodism has 
its " Love Feasts," which are also intended 
and calculated to cultivate spiritual fellow- 
ship. The Love Feast, though now peculiar 
to Methodism, is as ancient as the Christian 
Church. " It is certain," says Coleman, in 
his Ancient Christianity, " that the feast of 
charity was celebrated in the earliest period 



62 



MEANS OP GEACE 



of the Christian Church. See Acts, 2 : 46." 
It was celebrated at first in connection with 
the Lord's supper, and consisted of a social 
meal; accompanied with religious exercises 
and expressions of brotherly affection. As the 
primitive church lost its purity, the love feast 
lost its original significancy; abuses became 
associated with it, and it was finally abolished 
by the Council of Laodicea in the middle of 
the fourth century. Mr. Wesley, in imitation 
of the Moravians, adopted it with its present 
simple form, and strictly religious character, 
for the spiritual benefit of his societies. It 
remains, a cherished and delightful institu- 
tion of Methodism, and is eminently fitted to 
promote Christian fellowship. 

Thus, you see some of the spiritual advan- 
tages of Methodism. It cherishes with direct 
and habitual effort, the great elements of the 
Christian life ; its doctrines are preeminently 
suited to feed the flame of that life ; its pe- 
culiar institutions have the same tendency ; it 
provides, as no other church does, for the 



PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 63 



cultivation of Christian fellowship. In one 
word, the whole system is organized for the 
special purpose of developing deep; earnest, 
active, glowing piety. It offers no induce- 
ments to the spiritual sluggard, the formal- 
ist, the half-way Christian. It seeks the 
sincere lover of Christ, and offers itself to 
him as a helper to the attainment of the 
hi2:hest forms of the divine life. Are not 
these great advantages ? Ought you to sacri- 
fice them lightly ? Are they not just what 
you desire in your holiest moments ? Why 
then do you hesitate ? Away with the sug- 
gestions of those who seek to proselyte you 
to other altars. Go, give yourself to your 
true spiritual mother, saying, in the simple 
language of the dutiful Ruth : " Thy people 
shall be my people j and thy God my God ! " 



CHAPTER IV. 




OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 

one of the European picture 
galleries, there is a fine por- 
trait of Jean Paul Richter^ 
surrounded by floating clouds, 
which, when examined closely, re- 
solve themselves into beautiful angel 
faces. But so soft and shadowy are 
those angelic images, that to be discerned 
they must be beheld from a close stand- 
point, and studied with an attentive eye. 

This picture embodies a truth in Metho- 
dism; for its peculiarities, if viewed at a 
distance and by a prejudiced mind, appear 
like impenetrable clouds. Their beauty and 
value are not fully apparent until one draws 
nigh to them, and examines them with au 
appreciative mind. Then they disclose them- 



OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 



65 



selves. Then they stand forth full of spirit- 
ual attraction and power. But inasmuch as 
many persons^ who only view them from a 
distance and with envious feelings, have set 
themselves up as their critics and judges, 
you will not be surprised to learn that nu- 
merous objections have been brought against 
those very peculiarities which are at once 
the true ornaments of Methodism and the 
chief sources, under God, of its wonderful use- 
fulness. You may meet with some of these 
self-constituted critics. Let me guard you 
against their misrepresentations. I will begin 
with their objections to the class meeting. 

One writer (Rev. J. E. Graves, a Baptist;) 
says ^- the conscience is hardened by it^ In 
support of this assertion, he argues that 
confession of sin to God without contritionj 
hardens the conscience." He then infers 
that such confession to men ^-must harden 
the conscience in a greater degree." To 
illustrate his argument, this unscrupulous 
writer resorts to a sad slander. He says 
o 



66 OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



" that a peculiar insensibility to moral honor 
and integrity of character " is " characteristic 
of the Methodist common mass." 

This argument reposes on a gross fallacy. 
It assumes that the sole business of the 
class meeting is the confession of sin. This 
is not true. The class meeting is not a con- 
fessional; but a place for the communication 
of religious experience. It is the duty of 
the class leader to draw out such communi- 
cation by inquiring of his members "how 
their souls prosper" — a question which 
covers the entire range of religious expe- 
rience. It may lead to confession, or it may 
not. That depends very much on the spirit- 
ual health of the persons present. It gen- 
erally leads to acknowledgments of the divine 
goodness, and descriptions of the various 
phases of the inner life which have character- 
ized their recent experiences. Hence, the 
assumption that confession is the sole, or 
even the chief business of the class meeting, 
is false. And it is especially false to allege^ 



PECULIAEITIES COXSIDEEED. 



67 



that when there is confession^ it is unaccom* 
panied by contrition; for the class meeting 
is the very last place to which an impenitent 
person would be likely to resort. Thus^ the 
assumptions of this writer, being as false as 
they are uncharitable, his argument is invalid, 
and his objection falls to the ground. His 
charge of moral insensibility and defective 
integrity, as characteristic of Methodists, 
only reflects his own character, and proves 
him to be of that class of slanderers whom 
the poet describes in the following lines : 

" They who stung Tvere creeping things ; but what 
Than serpent's teeth inflict with deadhest throes? 
The lion may be goaded by the gnat — 

Who sucks the slumberer's blood? The eagle ? — Xo, the bat." 

It has been asserted by another writer, 
(Rev. Parsons Cooke, a Congregationalist,) 
that the class meeting is a mitigated form 
of the Eomish confessional.'^ Your own in- 
telligence will teach you that this is a lame 
and vulgar appeal to prejudice, because there 
is not the least analogy between the class 



68 OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



meeting and the confessional. You know 
that the Romish confessional is a private 
box, where the worshipper makes secret con- 
fession of all his sins to a priest, with a view 
to his absolution. It is a means by which 
the Eomanist penitent performs the sacra- 
ment of penance. But a class meeting is a 
meeting of Christian people who openly 
converse with one of their number on the 
subject of religious experience; for the pur- 
pose of being assisted to "work out their 
own salvation." It needs no priest to carry 
it on. Its leader is a layman. It pretends 
to nothing sacramental in its character. It 
exacts no confessions of sin. It knows 
nothing of priestly absolution. Its type is 
not the Eomish confessional; for it has no 
one feature which bears the smallest resem- 
blance to that unscriptural institution. It is 
simply a meeting for the enjoyment and pro- 
motion of Christian fellowship; such as God's 
ancient people cherished; wheu; according to 
Malachi; They that feared the Lord; spake 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 



69 



often one to another ; and the Lord heark- 
ened, and heard it; and a book of remem- 
brance was written before him for them that 
fear the Lord; and that thought upon his 
name : * and such as is required by the 
apostle JameS; where he sayS; " Confess your 
faults one to another, and pray one for 
another; that ye may be healed.'^ 

Again, the same inconsiderate author 
affirms that the class meeting tends to 
" promote insincerity and a habit of hollow 
pretenceS;" because the weekly relation of 
experience it requires is a temptation to 
tread a beaten track of recital; in which 
actual experience does not run ; or to rely 
somewhat upon invention for the materials 
of a story that will make a good appear--, 
ance before the class." 

This argument is both uncharitable and 
fallacious. Uncharitable; because it brings a 
charge of hypocrisy and falsehood against 
Methodists generally : fallacious; because it 
proceeds on the supposition that a sound 



70 



OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



religious experience cannot furnish material 
for such weekly inquiries and relations as a 
class meeting implies, and therefore it must 
lead to false pretensions. .But suppose the 
spiritual life is so active, so varied in its 
development, so surrounded by hindrances, 
and so subject to conflicts as to present innu- 
merable phases and shades of experience, 
it must then be conceded that the class 
meeting is precisely fitted to meet its wants, 
because it furnishes stated opportunities to 
express its joys and griefs, and to obtain 
encouragement, instruction, and stimulus. 
Now this is the Methodistic view of the Chris- 
tian life. And on this view, which I believe 
is the true one, class meetings stand firmly 
and securely built. Those who think the 
Christian life is dull and stagnant — a still 
half-putrid pool of subsided feeling — will 
readily believe that a Christian cannot have 
enough of " internal history " to furnish mate- 
rial for weekly communion, and that the class 
meeting cannot be sustained except by 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 71 

falsehood and hypocrisy. But you, beloved 
reader, do not hold such low views of the 
Christian life. You know, too, that the class 
meeting has stood the test of more than a 
century, and that millions of pious souls have 
been wonderfully blessed by it. You will not 
therefore, be likely to be drawn away from 
Methodism by such objections. 

You will also be likely to hear similar 
statements respecting band meetings. Mr. 
Graves has said of it that the vilest ques- 
tions to be found in Denn's Theology may be 
put to every member of a band meeting." 
To this a very short and sufficient answer is 
found in the fact that the band meeting is 
almost obsolete in American Methodism, and 
that the first instance of an improper ques- 
tion having been put by a band leader has 
yet to be adduced. In fact, the band meeting 
is designed only for persons who, having 
attained a high degree of spirituality^ desire 
a closer spiritual fellowship than is provided 
for in the class meeting. But it was never 



72 OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



general or obligatory in Methodism; and, in 
all probability, never will be. It presupposes 
sucli a degree of sincerity, simplicity, integ- 
rity, and spirituality as, I fear, will never be 
universal in any sect, while poor human 
nature dwells in earthly tabernacles. Hence, 
they who seek to prejudice you against Meth- 
odism because of what they pretend to find 
objectionable in band meetings, only beat the 
air. They assail an institution which can 
hardly be said to exist, save in the letter of 
the discipline. 

It may interest you to know that while 
some sectarian writers are assailing the class 
meeting, others, of more intelligence, candor, 
and piety, are recommending its introduction 
into their own ecclesiastical organisms. A 
recent article in the Episcopal Recorder 
recommends the institution of class or band 
meetings by the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
It says that from the class meetings the 
great Methodist revival drew its strength, 
and had they been legitimated in the 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 73 

Church of England, she would have remained 
in fact, as well as in name. National." It 
mentions two or three instances in which 
meetings conducted like our class meetings 
were signally blessed — and concludes with 
the remark: — And it is not too much to 
say, that by the adoption of such meetings in 
future, the church [Protestant Episcopal] 
would be taking the means, of all others the 
most efficient, for throwing off the spiritual 
sluggishness with which she is now op- 
pressed." 

Not long since, the pastor of a Congrega- 
tionalist church in Massachusetts, in conver- 
sation with a Methodist preacher stationed 
in the same town, lamented that the converts 
of a recent revival in his church, did not 
manifest that vigor in their spiritual life 
which was desirable. He complained par- 
ticularly of their backwardness in religious 
meetings. He then asked his Methodist 
brother ; " How do you manage to secure so 
much activity as is manifest in your con- 
verts ? " 



74 OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



" Sir/' replied the Methodist preacher, 
"that results not so much from what I do^ as 
from the influences of our system, especially 
of our class meeting." 

^[ What is the nature of your class meet- 
ing?" inquiredjihe other. 

The preacher explained the manner and 
design of that meeting to him. After hearing 
his statement; the Oongregationalist pastor 
looked up very earnestly, and with great 
emphasis remarked : 

" Such a meeting must have a most benefi- 
cial influence both on old Christians and 
young converts. It is just what we need ! " 

That pastor spoke honestly. He would 
doubtless have been glad, if the order and 
public sentiment of his denomination had 
permitted, to establish class meetings in his 
own church. 

A kindred conviction of the value of this 
means of grace is also working its way into 
the minds of candid observers in England, as 
will appear by the following facts. 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 75 



A committee of the English ConYOcation 
having recommended to the Episcopal Church 
the formation of religious fraternities within 
its bosom, for the benefit of converts, and a 
High Church writer, in advocating the 
measure, having ignored the existence of the 
Wesleyan class meeting, a scholarly critic in 
the North British Review calls attention to 
this feature of Wesleyanism. After quoting 
the disciplinary description of class and 
band meetings, this critic says: ^^'Xow we 
think that there are great doubts whether 
the effect upon the mind of this practice of 
confession, which prevails in this closest asso- 
ciation, {the haiid) would, in most cases, be 
salutary or no ; but it seems evident that it 
is the sort of confession recommended in St. 
James's Epistle, being, like it, mutual — 
directed, not to a priest, but to a righteous 
man, real or supposed — and with a view to 
obtaining the benefit of his prayers ; and it 
supplies a want of the soul, which, although 
perhaps morbid, is a real and frequent one.'' 



76 OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 

This "writer then goes on to state Avhat he 
regards as the fault of the Wesleyan sys- 
tem/' namely, that the connection with a 
class is made an indispensable term of com- 
munion." " The whole thing/' he adds, should 
be optional ; and then the system would be 
free from all objections; and might continue, 
as it is at present J a great means of strength- 
ening and holding the convert^ and a great 
support and comfort to a large class of 
minds.^^ 

You will observe that the approval here 
given to class meetings is reluctant and 
qualified. The writer evidently shares in 
those prejudices which even candid and noble 
minds may innocently possess, against institu- 
tions with which, from the nature of the case, 
they cannot be practically acquainted. But 
this only renders the measure of approval 
which is given more valuable, for it shows 
that the writer applauds no more than his 
gravest and most mature judgment compels 
him to do. His praise is a concession made 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 77 



to his prejudices; in obedience to the demands 
of his reason. 

In the above quotations you will observe 
that this writer admits : 1. The scriptural 
character of the class meeting. 2. Its adap- 
tation to supply a real want " of the souL 
3. That it is a " great means of strength- 
ening and holding the convert/' a " great sup- 
port and comfort to a large class of minds." 

These admissions are important; coming as 
they do from a highly educated Presbyterian; 
through the columns of a British Review. 
They show that the best mind in the Chris- 
tian church is beginning to recognize a fitness 
and an effectiveness in the ecclesiastical organ- 
ism established by Mr. Wesley; which more 
shallow and bigoted minds have hitherto 
refused to see. They also indicate a ten- 
dency in other Christian bodies towards 
Methodist usages. They point to a period 
in which tardy justice will be done to Mr. 
Wesley's sagacity by the general adoption^ 
with various modifications; of the leading 



78 



OBJECTIOXS TO METHODIST 



features of his system; by the evangelical 
churches of Christendom. 

Such testimonies as these confirm what I 
have said in illustration of the value of the 
class meeting. They also show you that 
otherS; besides Methodists, concede its 
scriptural character, its necessity, and its fit- 
ness to supply a positive demand of the 
spiritual life. Be assured, then, that in 
entering the pale of Methodism, you will find 
in this institution such a help to the com- 
munion of saints," and to growth in grace, as 
you can find in no other branch of the Chris- 
tian Church. Xo other church provides in its 
organism for the culture of Christian fellow- 
ship. 

It is related of a certain Spaniard that he 
was accustomed to put on spectacles when 
he ate cherries, that they might appear large 
and tempting to his eye. I have no doubt 
you will find persons among those seeking 
to proselyte you, who are wont to put on 
spectacles when they examine the peculiari- 



FECULIARITIES CONSIDEEED. 



79 



ties of our cliurch. Such spectacled critics 
will point you to numerous imaginary evils. 
Perhaps they will try to convince you that 
Methodist prayer meetings are marked by 
practices vrhich are contrary to the true 
order of the church of God. They may tell 
yoU; for instance^ as the Rev. Parsons Cooke 
has donC; that our practice of relating expe- 
riences tends ^-to promote insincerity and a 
habit of hollow pretences." In support of 
this charge they may refer to this redoubtable 
gentleman, who gravely relates that he once 
heard ^-fifteen professed converts giving their 
experience." who '-'repeated always the ideas 
and most often the words of the first." This 
convinced the Reverend critic, that their 
" experience was nothing more than the reci- 
tal of a lesson from memory." Your specta- 
cled informants may then add. that these 
converts were schooled into this hypccrisy 
by our system, and that consequently you 
had better forsake it as quickly as possible. 
But you already know enough of Methodisnj 



80 



OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



to perceive the utter falsity of this charge, 
which; by the way, carries its own refutation 
on its face. Just look at it. 

1. It is not customary in public Methodist 
prayer meetings for converts to relate their 
experience at length. They merely make a 
general confession of their newly found faith 
in Christ. 2. The fifteen converts evidently 
did not do it; for the time usually occupied 
in a public meeting; would be insufficient for 
fifteen persons to give their experience; " in 
all its forms and minuteness.^^ 

NoW; if they were not relating the details 
of their experience; but only making a 
general confession of their faith; what be- 
comes of this argument? It surely will not 
be affirmed to be a thing incredible;" that 
fifteen persons should have had a genuine 
religious experience so substantially identical 
as to find true expression in ideas and ver- 
biage very nearly similar ? Is not the expe- 
rience of every Christian in substance the 
same ? Does not the difference in Christian 



PKCULIAPJTIES COXSIDEEED. 



81 



experience, lie chiefiy in mode, circnmstance, 
and detail, rather tuan in substance ? If not, 
why do the writings of David and Paul fur- 
nish the best possible language by which to 
express the experience of modern believers ? 
Why then is the sameness of verbiage and 
ideas employed by fifteen converts to express 
a general confession of an experience which, 
in order to be genuine, must be substantially 
idejitical. tortured into an argument against 
their sincerity? Is there not a corresponding 
sameness in the general profession, which 
Calvinistic converts make in their inquiry 
and conference meetings ? Do they not all 
speak of ^* indulging a hope/' of trusting in 
God's covenanted mercies/'' and of hoping 
in the sovereign grace of God/' and kindred 
^» stereotyped '' phrases ? What then be- 
comes of this argument ? It falls to the 
ground, a glaring sophism, which you ^ill 
shake off as easily as Paul shook the viper 
from his hand on the island of Melita. 

The Methodist prayer meeiiiis; is objected 
6 



82 



OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



to ty some, because of its "noise/' its altar 
for penitents, its seeming confusion^ and, in 
seasons of revival, and at camp meetings, its 
scenes of earnest excitement. These tilings 
have been wickedly ridiculed by Mr. Cooke, 
who, in the true spirit of infidelity, calls them 
a " religious comedy,'' " comic operations," 
&c., which are encouraged by our ministry, he 
says, not because of their intrinsic rightful- 
ness, but because they "promote Metho- 
dism." 

I very much mistake the temper of your 
piety, dear convert, if this objection has the 
weight of a feather in your estimation. You 
are an earliest Christian. You believe in 
an earnest Christianity. You could not 
endure to see men laboring to save immortal 
souls from unending death, with the cool 
gravity of a Turk sipping coffee. You be- 
lieve that coldness and formality arc never 
more out of place than at a prayer meeting. 
You will, therefore, treat this objection with 
the contempt it justly merits. Provided the 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 



83 



earnestaess of Methodism does not degene- 
rate into extravagance and fanaticism, it will 
be to you its highest coram.eudation; that at 
its altars the penitent is not forbidden to 
exhibit the intense emotions of his awakened 
soul ; no, not if they lead him to come 
"trembling," and ^-falling down," like the 
Philippian jailor, and crying, Sirs, what 
must I do to be saved?" Nor, will you be 
kept from Methodism because its ministers 
and members are quick to sympathize with 
such intensity of feeling, ready to pour out 
their souls in strong desire for seekci's, and 
to lift up their voices in fervent praise when 
God pronounces them forgiven. 

Now what is there beyond this in the 
usual manifestations of Methodist pi*ayer 
meetings? Occasionally, and in some places, 
it is true, the tides of feeling may overOow 
the banks of rigid propriety. But are such 
exceptional breaches of the ordinary pi'opri- 
eties of life so unbecoming as to merit the 
title of "comic operations?" I have read 



84 



OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



that a Czar of Russia once saw a peasant 
struggling for life in the waters of a river. 
The sight appealed to his humanity. The 
Czar was forgotten in the man. He 
tore off his coat, leaped into the river, 
brought the half dead peasant to the shore, 
and stood dripping and disordered among his 
astonished attendants. Doubtless his aspect 
was very " comic,'' very unsatisfactory in the 
eyes of brainless etiquette. But who with a 
man's heart in his bosom, could ridicule 
him ? So too, there may be in a Methodist 
prayer meeting, such struggling for the " life '' 
of sinking souls as gives rise to " strong cries 
and tears,'' to demonstrations which are un- 
courtly, and contrary to the laws of a finical 
etiquette ; but who with the soul of a Chris- 
tian, can find it in his heart to ridicule such 
things ? I would not, to be sure, encourage 
them. They are not sought for or cherished 
in the Methodist church, generally. But T 
cannot understand how any man, whose heart 
has learned to aoronize for the "birth of 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 



85 



souls/' can mock at them when tliey do occur. 
I shrink from such a man, as I would from a 
French dancing master, who should stand 
beside the stake of a dying martyr and criti- 
cise him because his postures were not 
altogether secundum artem, I have little 
doubt that, if such as he had witnessed the 
excitement which followed the discourse 
of Peter on the day of Pentecost, they would 
have pronounced it a "religious comedy.'* 
But I need not dwell on this point. Youj 
beloved reader, are too earnest a Christian 
to be moved from Methodism by assaults 
upon its activity, intensity, and ardent sym- 
pathy for human salvation* 

Another usage of Methodism, which is often 
bitterly as^iled by its enemies, is the Chris- 
tian liberty it allows to women. Believing, 
with an apostle, that in " Christ Jesus 
there is neither "male nor female," it does 
not reduce woman to a cypher, or restrict her 
power to do good, by depriving her of the 
privilege of offering prayer, or of declaring 



86 



OBJECTIOXS TO METHODIST 



the goodness of God to her soul, in class and 
prayer meetings. "Woman's equality in the 
rights, privileges, and blessings of the gos- 
pel is practically declared in Methodism, by 
her admission to these privileges. If the 
reader is a woman, this faot must commend 
lilethodism to her esteem. She may not wish 
to use these opportunities herself, for she 
may possess so sensitive a nature as to 
shrink from public observation. Still, she 
can but feel the honor done to her sex by a 
tisage which so distinctly recognizes its 
equality. She can but acknowledge that 
Methodism has an especial claim on woman's 
gratitude for this most excellent custom. 

But is this usage scriptural ? Many Cal- 
vinists affirm that it is not. They heap un- 
stinted censures on the Methodist church for 
allowing it ; claiming that it is forbidden by 
the apostle, in these words : Let your 
women keep silence in the churches ; for it 
is not permitted unto them to speak," 1 
Cor, 14 : 34. 



PECULIAKITIES CONSIDEEED. 



87 



If this were the onlv text in which wonien's 
privileges were referred to by the apostle^ il 
might settle the question. But fortunatelj 
the mind of the Spirit is elsewhere expressed, 
and that too, in favor of the usage of Metho- 
dism, and the dignity of women. In 1 Cor. 
11 : 5, the apostle recognizes the right of 
women to speak and pray in the chureh, by 
prescribing the manner in which those duties 
are to be performed. "Every woman that 
prayeth or prophesieth with her head un- 
covered, dishonoreth her head." Again^ in 
verse 13; "Is it comely that a woman pray 
unto God with her head uncovered ? " That 
you may see the /orce of these texts, I will 
quote Dr. Adam Clarke'^s comment apon 
verse 5th. 

" Whatever may be the meaning of praying 
and prophesying in respect to the man, they 
have precisely the same meaning in respect 
to the woman. So that some women, at 
least, as well as some men, might speak to 
others to edification and exhortation, and 



88 



OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



comfort. And this kind of prophesying or 
teaching, was predicted by Joel, 2: 28, and 
referred to by Peter, Acts 2: 17. And had 
there not been such gifts bestowed on women, 
the prophecy could not have had its fulfil- 
ment. The only difference marked by the 
apostle was, the man had his head uncovered, 
because he was the representative of Christ, 
the woman had hers covered, because she 
was placed, by the order of God, in a state 
of subjection to the man; and because it 
was a custom, both among the Greeks and 
Romans, and among the Jews an express 
law, that no woman should be seen abroad 
without a veil." 

This interpretation accords with the prac- 
tice of the primitive church, as shown in 
various portions of the New Testament. 
Did not a woman make the first proclama- 
tion of the resurrection of Christ to the 
apostolic college ? Did not Priscilla in- 
struct Apollos in the meaning of the Scrip- 
tures? Did not Paul greet her as his 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 



89 



helper in Christ Jesus ? " Did he not 
" thank her " for her services; and declare 
that " all the churches of the Gentiles 
thanked " her also ? (See Romans 16 : 4). 
Did he not also send salutations to Try- 
PHEXA; Tryphosa, and the "beloved Persis?" 
Of the first two ladies he says, they "labor 
in the Lord : " of PersiS; that she "' labored 
much in the Lord." What this labor was, I 
will permit Dr. Clarke to state. In his note 
on Romans 16 : 12, he says of Tryphena and 
Tryphosa : — 

"' Two holy women, who, it seems, were 
assistants to the apostle in his work; prob- 
ably by exhorting, visiting the sick, &c. 
Persis was another woman, who, it seems, 
excelled the preceding; for, of her it is said, 
she labored much in the Lord. We learn 
from this, that Christian womerij as well as 
men, labored in the ministry of the word. 
In those times of simplicity, all persons, 
whether men or women, who had received 
the knowledge of the truth, believed it to be 



90 



OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



their duty to propagate it to the uttermost 
of their power. Many have spent much use- 
less labor in endeavoring to prove that these 
women did not preach. That there were 
some pi^ophetesseSj as well as prophets in the 
Christian church, we learn ; and that a 
woman might pray or prophecy^ provided 
she had her head covered we know ; and that 
whoever prophesied spoke unto others to 
edification, exhortation, and comfort, St. Paul 
declares, 1 Cor. 14 : 3. And that no preacher 
can do more, every person must acknowl- 
edge ; because to edify, exhort, and comfort, 
are the prime ends of the gospel ministry. 
If women thus prophesied, then women 
preached. There is, however, much more 
than this implied in the Christian ministry, 
of which men only, and men called of God, 
are capable." 

But how can these facts and interpretations 
be harmonized with the command to " keep si- 
lence," quoted above ? There is but one way 
to do this. The prohibition must be under- 



PECULIARITIES COXSIDERED, 



91 



stood to apply to speaking under particular 
circumstances, not to speaking and praying 
in general. This is Dr. Clarke's view. He 
says of the words Let your women keep 
silence in the churches : It is evi- 
dent from the context, that the apostle refers 
here to asking questionSj and what we call 
dictating in the assemblies. It was permit- 
ted to any man to ask questions, to object, to 
altercate, attempt to refute, &c., in the syna- 
gogue ; but this liberty was not allowed to 
any woman. St. Paul confirms this, in refer- 
ence also to the Christian church. He or- 
ders them to keep silence, and if they wish 
to learn any thing, let them inquire of their 
husbands at home, because it was perfectly 
indecorous for women to be contending with 
men in public assemblies on points of doc- 
trine, cases of conscience, &c. But this, by 
no means, intimated that when a woman re- 
ceived any particular influence from God, to 
enable her to teach, that she was not to obey 
that influence ; on the contrary, she was to 



92 OBJECTIONS TO METHODIST 



obey it, and the apostle lays down directions 
in chap. 11, for regulating her personal ap- 
pearance when thus employed," &c. 

Accept this explanation and all is clear. 
There is then no contradiction between the 
precepts themselves, nor between the pre- 
cepts and the practice of the apostle. Deny 
it, and the precepts oppose each other : the 
apostle is guilty of the inconsistency of 
tolerating and praising a practice in one 
place, which he condemns in another. I 
know you will not accept this latter conclu- 
sion. You have then but one alternative. 
You must believe that the Methodist usage 
of permitting women to speak and pray is 
sanctioned by the practice of the Apostolic 
church, and by the word of God. 

Such are the chief objections urged against 
our leading peculiarities. You see how 
readily they dissolve when touched by the 
Ithuriel spear of examination. It is so 
with all the objections which are coined so 
plentifully in the mint of our enemies. The 



PECULIARITIES CONSIDERED. 



93 



fact i?, they do not understand Methodisn), 
and you have but to compare their assertions 
with the real facts, to see them melt into 
air. 

A laughable instance of this ignorance, 
even in regard to the historical facts of the 
church, occurs in the writings of Mr. Cooke. 
Speaking of Jesse Lee, he says : there is 
a tradition that when he came to Lynn on a 
visit; many years after his mission here, and 
saw the present meeting house of the first 
Methodist Church, with its steeple and bell, 
and all the common conveniences of meeting 
houses, he was indignant at the mark of de- 
generacy in' his church, and even refused to 
preach in the new house." 

Had the writer of this scrap of petty 
gossip turned to Jesse Lee's life, he would 
have learned that the good man never saw 
the present meeting house of the first Metho- 
dist Church in Lynn. His last Tisit to 
that town was made in 1808 — jive years be- 
fore the said house was dedicated I 



94 



OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 



How competent to judge correctly of 
Methodism such critics are, you can readily 
determine. If you will bring all the state- 
ments you hear against it, by those who seek 
to proselyte you from its communion, to the 
test of facts, you will see them vanish like 
this tradition. Bring Methodism to the 
light, and it w^ill shine brighter and brighter. 
And this is the secret cause of the hostility 
which frowns upon it from so many quarters. 
It contains so much that is good, so mauj 
elements of real power, that the breasts of 
strono: sectarians are filled with envv. For 
this cause, could its enemies triumph, it 
might be said of it, as was once said of a 
shinimi: man : 

" Was he not rich in independent worth ? 
And great in native gooJncss? that undid him! 
Thei'e, there he fell ! 11* he had been less great, 
He had been safe.'* 



CHAPTER V. 




DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM, 

M^-'^'^W'^^^'iOy^ is mistress of the 
world/' savs the Italian prov- 
erb. And is it not so ? Is 

^ji^i between the actions and opinions 
of men? Docs not doctrine mould 
character and give color to action? 
Find a nation with a false theology, and do 
yon not also find it corrupt in affection and 
wicked in practice ? Did not the cruel, un- 
chaste, bloodthirsty deities of Greece and 
Rome beget cruelty, lust, and strife in their 
worshippers? Has any race of men ever 
atrained to rectitude of character tiirough 
faith in debasing falsehoods ? Has any sect 
ever attained to a Christian standard of 
experience and morals while denying truths 
fundamental to Christianitv ? Never! How. 



96 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 



theH; can you reasonably hope to grow up 
to the maturity of a sound and healthy 
Christian character without attaining correct 
views of the doctrines of Holy Writ ? You 
cannot. The thistle will not bring forth 
figs. Beauty will not spring from deformity. 
Neither will error produce heavenly affec- 
tions, nor unscriptural doctrines eliminate a 
holy life. 

If, therefore; beloved convert, you would 
attain to a comfortable experience, a right 
state of heart, and a pure life, you must 
cherish sound doctrines — you must study 
to conform your creed to the teachings of the 
divine word. You must place yourself in 
communion with that church whose pulpit 
enounces the purest forms of truth, whose 
creed is nearest to the Bible. 

If you are guided by these principles, 1 
think you will not hesitate to enter the pale 
of Methodism ; for in its creed you will 
find doctrines which commend themselves to 
your enlightened reason, which harmonize 



DOCTEINES PECULIAE TO METHODISM. 97 



with the ^orcl of God; and which are emi- 
nently adapted to support and develop a 
vigorous religious experience. 

I cannot in this little volume enter into a 
thorough exposition and defence of the doc- 
trines of Methodism. All I can do, is to 
throve out such hints and suggestions as may 
strengthen your confidence in those doctrines 
which I presume you to have already em- 
braced; and to fortify your mind against 
such objections as your proselyting friends 
may whisper in your ears. 

I wish you to note first; that the funda- 
mental doctrines of Methodism are in strict 
harmony with the faith of the evangelical 
church of all ages and in all countries. 
Methodists hold; in common with Calvinists, 
the doctrines of human depravity; the deity 
of Christ; the atonement; justification by 
faith only; regeneration by the Holy Spirit, 
the future punishment of unbelievers; the 
inspiration of the ScriptureS; and their suffi- 
ciency for salvation. HencC; you perceive, 
7 



98 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

that the evangelical ch^r^Gier of Methodism 
cannot be truthfully denied^ because it teaches 
those great cardinal truths which have ever 
distinguished evangelical from non-evangelical 
bodies. 

The leading doctrines maintained by the 
Methodists you will find stated, in general 
termS; in the twenty-five articles of religion 
contained in the " Discipline." These arti- 
cles; with the exception of the twenty-third^ 
were abridged from the " Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles " of the Church of England, by Mr, 
Wesley. They were first printed in what 
was called the Sunday Service but, in 
1790; they were incorporated into the body of 
the discipline. That you may know how they 
are interpreted by our church, I will quote the 
Rev. Richard Watson's statement of those 

^ These articles were originally forty-tivo in nnmber. They 
■were first framed by Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley, in 
1551. After being approved by the Convocation, they were 
published in English and Latin, in 1553. In 1562, they were 
revised and reduced to thirty-nine, and approved by the Convo- 
cation. 



DOCTRIXES PECULIAR TO METHODIS:^!. 99 



points in tliem for the defence of which 
Methodism has always been distinguished. 

••Methodists maintain the total fall of 
man in Adam, and his utter inability to re- 
cover himself; or to take one step towards his 
recovery, ^without the grace of God pre- 
venting him, that he may have a good will, 
and working with him when he has that good 
will.' They assert that ^ Christ, by the grace 
of God, tasted death for every man.' This 
grace they call free, as extending itself freely 
to all. They say that ^ Christ is the Saviour 
of all men, especially of them that believe;' 
and that, consequently, they are authorized 
to offer salvation to all, and to ^preach the 
gospel to every creature.' They hold justifi- 
cation by faith. ^ Justification,' says Mr. Wes- 
ley, ^ sometimes means our acquittal at the 
last day. Matt. 12:37; but this is altogether 
out of the present question; for that justifi- 
cation, whereof our Articles and Homilies 
speak, signifies present forgiveness, pardon 
of sins, and consequently acceptance with God., 



100 DOCTKmES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

who therein declares his righteousness; or 
justice; and mercy; by or for the remission 
of sins that are past; Eom. 3:25; saying; I 
will be merciful to thy unrighteousness; and 
thy iniquities I will remember no more. I 
believe the condition of this is faith; Eom. 
4 : 5; &c. ; I meau; not only that without faith 
we cannot be justified; but also that as soon 
as any one has true faith; in that moment he 
is justified. Faith in general; is a divine 
supernatural evidence; or conviction; of 
things not seen, not discoverable by our 
bodily senseS; as being either past; future; or 
spiritual. Justifying faith implieS; not only a 
divine evidence; or conviction; that God was 
in Christ; reconciling the world unto himself; 
but a full reliance on the merits of his death; 
a sure confidence that Christ died for my 
sins ; that he loved mC; and gave himself for 
me ; and the moment a penitent sinner be- 
lieves this, God pardons and absolves him.' 

" This faith; Mr. Wesley affirmS; ' is the 
gift of God. No man is able to work it in 



DOCTRINES PECrLIAR TO METHODISM. 101 

himself. It is a work of Omnipotence. It 
requires no less power thus to quicken a 
dead soul, tlian to raise a body that lies in 
the grave. It is a new creation ; and none 
can create a soul anew but He, who first 
created the heavens and the earth. It is the 
free gift of God, which he bestows not on 
those who are worthy of his favor, not on 
such as are previously holy, and so fit to be 
crowned with all the blessings of his good- 
ness; but on the ungodly and unholy, on 
those who, till that hour, were fit only for 
everlasting destruction; those in whom is 
no good thing, and whose only plea was, 
God be merciful to me a sinner ! No 
merit, no goodness in man, precedes the 
forgiving love of God. His pardoning mercy 
supposes nothing in us but a sense of mere 
sin and misery; and to all who see and feel 
and own their wants, and utter inability to 
remove them, God freely gives faith, for the 
sake of Him in whom he is always well 
pleased. Good works follow this faith, Luke 



102 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 



6 : 43, but cannot go before it; much less can 
sanctiiication; which implies a continued 
course of good works springing from holi- 
ness of heart.' 

" As to repentance, he insisted that it is 
conviction of sin, and that repentance and 
works meet for repentance, go before justi- 
fying faith ; but he held, with the Church of 
England, that all works, before justification, 
had, ^ the nature of sin and that, as they 
had no root in the love of God, which can 
only arise from a persuasion of his being 
reconciled to us, they could not constitute 
a moral worthiness preparatory to pardon. 
That true repentance springs from the grace 
of God, is most certain; but, whatever fruits 
it may bring forth, it changes not man's re- 
lation to God. He is a sinner, and is justi- 
fied as such ; ^ for it is not a saint, but a 
sinner, that is forgiven, and under the notion 
of a sinner.' God justifieth the ungodly, not 
the godly. Repentance, according to his 
statement, is necessary to true faith; but 



DOCTEINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 103 

faith alone is the direct and immediate instru- 
ment of pardon. They hold also the direct 
internal testimony of the Holy Spirit to the 
believer's adoption. 

They maintain alsO; that by virtue of the 
blood of Jesus Christ, and the operations of 
the Holy Spirit, it is their privilege to arrive 
at that maturity in grace, and participation 
of divine nature, which excludes sin from the 
heart, and fills it with perfect love to God 
and man. This they denominate Christian 
perfection. On this doctrine Mr. Wesley 
observes, ^ Christian perfection does not im- 
ply an exemption from ignorance or mistake, 
infirmities or temptations ; but it implies the 
being so crucified with Christ, as to be able 
to testify, I live not, but Christ liveth in me, 
Gal. 2 : 23, and hath purified their hearts by 
faith. Acts. 15:9.' Again : ^ To explain my- 
self a little farther on this head: 1. Not 
only sin, properly so called, that is, a volun- 
tary transgression of a known law ; but sin, 
improperly so called, that is, an involuntary 



104 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

transgression of a divine law, known or un- 
known, needs the atoning blood. 2. I believe 
there is no such perfection in this life as 
excludes these involuntary transgressions, 
which; I apprehend to be naturally consequent 
on the ignorance and mistakes inseparable 
from mortality. 3. Therefore, sinless per- 
fection is a phrase I never use, lest I should 
contradict myself. 4. I believe a person 
filled with the love of God is still liable to 
these involuntary transgressions. 5. Such 
transgressions you may call sins, if you 
please j I do not, for the reasons above men- 
tioned.' " 

With respect to the doctrine of Final 
Perseverance," the Methodists hold " that 
God gives to the truly faithful, who are 
regenerated by his grace, the means of pre- 
serving themselves in this state ; yet the 
regenerate may lose true justifying faith^ 
forfeit their state of grace, and die in their 
sins." See Ezek. 18 : 24, and 33 : 18. Joh^ 
15: 6. Heb. 6:4-6. 



DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 105 



These doctrines, thougli taught with pecu- 
liar emphasis and distinctness by Mr. Wes- 
ley and his followers, did not originate with 
him. As I have already observed, they are 
as ancient as Christianity. The opposite ten- 
ets, now known as Calvinism, were unknown 
to the primitive church. All the Fathers, down 
to the time of Augustine, an African bishop, 
who flourished in the latter part of the fourth 
century, taught the truths which now distin- 
guish the Methodists from their Calvinistic 
neighbors. For Calvin himself admits, that 
none of the Fathers, either Greek or Latin, be- 
fore Augustine, give countenance to his pecu- 
liar theology. And even Augustine, in his later 
works, teaches opinions which are more in 
harmony with the theory of universal re 
demption and its consequents, than with the 
scheme of predestination and limited atone- 
ment, which he had invented at an earlier pe- 
riod of his career. 

Now if Calvinism is taught in the Bible, 
how came it to pass that the contemporaries 



106 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

and immediate successors of the apostles^ 
knew nothing about it ? Why is it that its 
first appearance in the written theology of 
the primitive church; is in the writings of 
Augustine the African? Does it appear 
probable that such important doctrines as 
unconditional election; limited atonement, ir- 
resistible grace, and the necessary final per- 
severance of the elect, would have been for- 
gotten or overlooked; and that their contra- 
ries would be universally received, for over 
three hundred years after Christ; if his apos- 
tles had taught them to the church ? Your 
common sense will answer in the negative. 
Your reason will teach you that this silence 
of all the Fathers before AugustinC; is strong 
presumptive proof that the church knew noth- 
ing of those unscriptural theories, until the 
philosophic bishop of Hippo evolved them in 
his controversies with Pelagius the heretic. 
While the opposite fact, that they all taught 
an unlimited atonement, conditional election, 
&c., affords equally strong presumption, that 



DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 107 

these latter doctrines were receiyed by them 
from the apostles. These thmgs being so, it 
is clear that Methodist doctrines are as an- 
cient as Christianity ■ — that; in fact; they in- 
clude all that is contained in Christianity; and 
are the doctrines of Holy Writ. 

The doctrines now taught by Methodism 
were also taught in Germany during the 
palmiest days of the Reformation. Melanc- 
THON held them. Luther toward the end of 
his life endorsed them. The greatest lights 
of the Reformation in England also main- 
tained them; while in Holland; they were no- 
bly upheld by Arminius. Mr. Wesley reyived 
them; and they are now receiyed by the ma- 
jority of liying Christians. 

You are aware that the doctrines of Meth- 
odism are often called Arminianism. They 
are so named after James Arminius of whose 
history I will giye you a brief sketch. 

D'AuBiGNE has eloquently and truly re- 
marked that MeU; like starS; appear on the 
horizon at the com^mand of God ! " James 



I 



V 



108 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

Arminius was one of these stars. By his 
light; God saved his church from the gloom 
and darkness of the stern and unscriptural 
theology of John Calvin. 

Like most great men, James Arminius 
sprung from the people, and not from the 
titled ranks of society. His father was a 
mechanic; ingenious and respectable; but com- 
paratively poor. James was born in 1560; 
at Oudewater; in Holland; and was bereft of 
his father while yet an infant. A learned 
clergyman kindly received him under his roof; 
and superintended his education. When fif- 
teen years of agC; Arminius was deprived of 
this friend by death. But his extraordinary 
talents attracted the attention of one of his 
townsmen; a learned mau; who took him to 
Marpurg; in Hessia, and caused him to enter 
the university. While here, our young theo- 
logian, now converted to God; was deprived 
of his mother; brother; and sister. They 
perished in the overthrow of Oudewater by 
the Spanish army. 



DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 109 ^ 

111 1575, Arminius remoyed to Lejden and 
entered the university just established at that 
place by the Prince of Orange. Here he 
continued six years ; when the municipal au- 
thorities of Amsterdam assumed the expense 
of his future academic studies, on condition 
that his ministry should be exercised in that 
city, and that he should dispose of his ser- 
vices only as they might approve. 

We find him next at Geneva, for a brief 
period; then, at Basle for a year; and, then, 
for three years again at Geneva. His acade- 
mic sjtudies concluded, he made a short tour 
in Italy; tarried awhile at Padua; and then, 
returning to Holland, he was ordained pastor 
of the Dutch Church in Amsterdam, in 1588. 
In 1603, he was elected professor of Divinity 
in the university of Leyden; and on the 
nineteenth of October, 1609, he died a calm 
and peaceful death, at the age of forty-nine 
years. 

Arminius was held in very high estimation, 
for his attainments and genius, while he was 



110 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

a student ; and liis success and popularity as 
a minister and professor fully justified the 
high opinion formed of him by his tutors and 
fellow students. But the latter years of his 
life were embittered by the hostility of his 
Calvinistic adversaries; whose malevolence, 
it was thought; contributed to render the 
disease of which he died; fatal. 

His controversy with the Calvinists was 
brought about by a request of the ecclesiasti- 
cal senate of Amsterdam^ that he would refute 
the alleged errors of a pious minister, named 
CoOENHERT; wlio had assailcd the opinions of 
Calvin on Predestination; &c.; some nine 
years previously. Applying his mind to the 
fulfilment of this request; he was led to such 
an examination of Calvin's dogmas as re- 
sulted in a conviction that they were unscrip- 
tural; and in the adoption of those opinions 
to which his name has since been attached. 
The violent assaults of the Calvinistic party 
on himself; and on his opinions; led to the 
writings which constitute his works." 



DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. Ill 

After tlie death of ArminiuS; his followers 
were cruelly persecuted hj the Calvinists. 
A synod was called at Dort, in 1618, by 
which the Arminians were pronounced here- 
tics, were excommunicated; driven from their 
churches, imprisoned; fined, and banished. 
Their name became a by-word and reproach 
among their enemies. And it has been a 
favorite practice among OalvinistS; from that 
time until now, to call almost every form of 
doctrinal error Arminianism. If a man 
hold that p:ood works are necessary to justi- 
fication ; if he reject the doctrine of original 
sin; if he deny that divine grace is necessary 
for the whole work of sanctification ; it is 
concluded that he is an Arminian. But the 
truth iS; that a man of such sentiments is a 
disciple of the Pelagian school. To such 
sentiments pure Arminianism is as diametri- 
cally opposed as Calvinism itself." 

You may be told; nevertheless; that the 
doctrines of Methodism are identical with 
those heresies; misnamed Arminianism; which 



112 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

once preyailed among the New England Con- 
gregationalistS; and which " rocked the cradle 
of Unitarianism in a hundred churches." 

But the assertion is false. The heresy 
which pervaded those churches was not true 
Arminianism. It was Pelagianism. It denied 
human depravity ; it taught the doctrine of 
salvation by works. You will be satisfied on 
this point if you will carefully read the fol- 
lowing extracts from Mr. Tracy's History of 
the Great Awakening. That writer says : — 

^^Rev. Joseph Peck had been too much en-^ 
lightened by conviction of sin to embrace 
Arminian principles at large ; but still 
secretly imagined that there was something 
in men to begin with, and which gospel 
grace came to make perfect. He preached 
and labored with his own heart accordingly^ 
but could not get to such a pitch as to 
think himself ripe for gracO; or with any 
confidence lay claim to it^ bcca^^e he found 
his own works not good enough to build 
any such claim upon j so it .was for several 



DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 113 

years, till it pleased God ^ to show him 
a way of justification by faith, without the 
deeds of the law." 

Describing the so-called Arminian minis- 
ters of Connecticut, Mr. Tracy says : — 

They led their hearers to belieye, thai 
by a certain round of duties^ 'performed while 
still impenitent, they might insure their 
regeneration ; ^ that the proper course for 
a sinner to take was to go steadily about 
the duties which God has appointed for 
impenitent sinners to perform before conver- 
sion, and leave the event with God." " This," 
says Mr. T., ^ was practically Arminian- 
ism. If any one preached Calvinism thor- 
oughly, to the very end of his sermon, 
maintaining that God has made no promise 
to such as industriously perform certain 
duties while impenitent, that nothing done 
during impenitence counts at all toward 
the justification of the doer, that deferring 
repentance and faith, and doing something 
else first, is flat rebellion against God, all 
8 



114 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

such preaching was condemned as Antino- 
mian ; " p. 309; History of the Great 
Awakening. 

Edwards gives a similar view of the 
alleged Arminianism of those times in the 
following sentence : — - 

"According to Arminian principles men 
have a good and honest heart, the very 
thing that is the grand requisite in order to 
God's acceptance; ^ ^ before they have the 
proper condition of salvation.'''' Edwards' 
WorkS; p. 581; Vol. 2. 

I will now quote a sentence or two from 
Watson's Dictionary; descriptive of the 
salient points in the system of PelagiuS; pre- 
mising that ^Pelagius was a British monk 
who lived in the early part of the fifth cen- 
tury. Visiting RomC; with his friend Celes- 
TIUS; he opposed the "received notions con- 
cerning original sin; and the necessity of the 
divine grace." Watson says he is repre- 
sented as teaching " that mankind derived no 



DOCTEDs'ES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 115 



injury from the sin of Adam ; that we are 
now as capable of obedience to the will of 
God as he was^ ^ ^ that men are born witli- 
out vice as well as without Tirtue. That it 
is possible for men j provided they fully em- 
ploy the powers and faculties with ivhich 
they are endued, to live without sin ; and 
Watson adds, ^'though he did not deny that 
external grace; or the doctrines and motives 
of the gospel; are necessary; yet he is said 
to have rejected the necessity of internal 
grace, or the aids of the Divine Spirit.^^ 

By comparing the italicised sentences in 
the above quotations; you will perceive that 
what Edwards and Tracy call Arminianism 
is strictly identical with the peculiar views 
of Pelagius. Both systems denied the doc- 
trines of original sin. and the absolute de- 
pendence of man for regeneration on the 
grace of God ; both taught the doctrine of 
salvation by workS; in opposition to the 
scriptural and Methodistical theory of salva- 



116 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 



tion by grace, and justification by faith 
alone. 

With these facts and statements before 
you, I think you will be convinced that those 
who charge Methodism with a likeness to the 
heresy which desolated the churches of the 
last century, are " false accusers," and conse- 
quently unworthy of your confidence in this 
matter. 

For a further view of the points of difi'er- 
ence between Pelagianism and Arminianism^ 
see Appendix No. 1. 

There is yet another misrepresentation of 

* This just distinction between a true and false Arminianism 
is recognized and stated by the Rev. Mr. Clarke, Secretary of 
the Home Missionary Society, in his " Historical Discourse," in 
the following note: "The term (Arminianism) is used here 
and throughout this discourse to denote the doctri^ie of Do 
AND LIVE, or salvation by works, a system which dispenses 
with the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit's agency, 
and is more properly named Pelagianism. In this sense of the 
word, it can hardly be said that Arminius was himself an 
Arminian. But as the word was uniformly employed by our 
fathers of the last century to indicate these Pelagian views, 
which were coming into the churches, it is thought best to 
retain it in tracing its growth," 



DOCTRINES PECULIAE TO METHODISM. 117 

Arminianism wHcli your proselyting friends 
may use to excite your prejudices. They 
may tell you, in the words of a recent writer, 
that Romanism has its basis in the Armin- 
ian doctrines." Romanism/' they may say, 
"like Methodism, denies the doctrines of 
election, of efficacious grace, of perseverance ; 
it inculcates the existence of sinless per- 
fection, and even more, of works of superer- 
ogation ; that is, becoming more than perfect. 
And with these Methodist doctrines Roman- 
ism has wrought with fearful power." 

But you must not permit such a statement 
as this to influence your action, because it is 
as groundless as the one I have just laid 
bare. By looking at the eleventh article of 
religion in the discipline (p. 19) you will see 
that it denounces works of supererogation 
thus : " Voluntary works, besides, over and 
above God's commandment, which are called 
works of supererogation, cannot be taught 
without arrogance and impiety.''^ 

With respect to sinless perfection," Mr» 



118 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

Wesley says it is a "phrase I never use." 
It has never been taught by the Methodist 
Church. 

Nor is it true that Eomanists are generally 
Arminians. They have always had no incon- 
siderable number of believers in the dogmas 
of Augustine in their communion. Says 
Mosheim^ (vol. 3, p. 106,) " The Dominicans; 
(the most powerful of the monkish orders) 
the Augustinians, the followers of Jansenius, 
and likewise many others^ deny that divine 
grace can possibly be resisted, ^ ^ deny 
that there are any conditions annexed to the 
eternal decrees of God respecting the salva- 
tion of all men, and other kindred doc- 
trines;^' in other words, these orders and 
sectaries of the Romish Church teach the 
views of high Calvinists. And when Luther 
and his coadjutors taught the opinions which 
entered into the scheme of Arminius, the 
Romish Church, says Mosheim, approved 
" Augustine's sentiments," which are substan- 
tially identical with Calvin's. The truth isj 



DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM, 119 

the views which distinguish both the Armin- 
ian and Calvinistic schools have always been 
largely represented in the Papal Church, and 
so long as both parties were otherwise faith- 
ful to her claims, she has tolerated both. It 
cannot be said of Romanism that it has been 
or is Calvinist or Arminian. It has been 
and still is, both, and neither scheme of 
theology is responsible for its errors. 

Thus, you see, this attempt to identify 
Methodist doctrines with Romanism is futile. 
It stands on assumptions which are histori- 
cally false, and cannot therefore command 
your credence. 

Hold fast then, beloved convert, to Metho- 
dist doctrines. They are scriptural, reason- 
able, full of comfort, full of power to meet 
the demands of your spiritual nature. Under 
their inspiration the primitive church spread 
itself over the world. They begat holy 
courage in the confessor, and heavenly hero- 
ism in the martyr, during the heroic age of 
the church. They gave life to the best period 



120 DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

and the best advocates of the Eeformation. 
Their proclamation by Wesley and his co- 
adjutors woke the slumbering church of the 
last century to new life ; and gave birth to a 
spiritual quickening which saved Christianity 
from the death which threatened it, and 
which is felt to this day all over the Chris- 
tian world. Supported by them, millions of 
holy souls have successfully solved the awful 
problem of their probation, have triumphed 
in their conflict with death, and have departed 
to reign with the Great Teacher by whom 
they were revealed. Hold them fast, there- 
fore, and they will guide you to their author's 
throne. 

On the contrary, if you embrace Calvin- 
ism, you will be involved in a labyrinth of 
perplexities. Ultra Calvinism (see Appendix, 
No. 2) with its horrible decrees of uncondi- 
tional election of some to life, and its fore- 
ordination of others to death, with its infant 
damnation and passive regeneration, will dis- 
gust your reason, wound your sense of justice^ 



DOCTRINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 121 

pain your sensibilities, and embarrass your 
experience. Moderate Calvinism, with its 
fallacious distinction between gracious and 
natural ability, will equally perplex you, if 
you are honest and inquiring ; because you 
will always feel conscious that you are 
obliged to dogmatically reject its logical 
consequences, or be compelled to accept the 
most repulsive features of ultra Calvinism. 
Added to this mental embarrassment, will be 
the fact that the Calvinist theology will chill 
your experience. It will hold you in agoniz- 
ing doubt as to your being one of the elect ; 
or else it will tempt you to indifference, on 
the ground that whether you struggle ear- 
nestly for life, or glide indolently down the 
stream, the result, being absolutely foreor- 
dained and unalterably fixed, will be the 
same. Thus distracted or tempted by your 
theology, your experience, in all probability, 
will be sad, painful, unsatisfactory. The 
childlike trust, the unwavering confidence, the 
rapturous love, the beaming hope, the aspir 



122 DOCTEINES PECULIAR TO METHODISM. 

ing energy, the tireless effort, which spring 
from the doctrines of Methodism, will be 
almost lost to you. But I need not urge this 
point with you. You see that the Scriptures, 
common sense, and the demands of your 
spiritual life, all point you to Methodism; 
and you will, I feel persuaded, conscientiously 
follow their guidance, despite of all influence 
from without. 



CHAPTER VI. 




THE rOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

^HE Oriental world produces a 
singular tree; which, in several 
of its characteristics, not un- 
aptly illustrates the rise and 
growth of Methodism. This tree, 
it is called the Banian Tree, has a 
woody stem, branching to a great 
height and vast extent. Every branch throws 
out new roots, which descend to the earth, 
strike in, and increase to large trunks, from 
which new branches grow, and new roots are 
again produced. This progression continues 
until the original tree literally becomes a 
forest. In like manner, Methodism, begin- 
ing with a single society, threw out branches 
with depending roots. These roots, striking 
into new portions of the community, grew 



124 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

into new churches. These again were re- 
productive. This progress has steadfastly 
continued. It continues now. Little more 
than a century has elapsed since it threw up 
its first shoot; yet; rooted in every quarter of 
the globC; it already bids fair to cover the 
earth with its branches^ and to fill the world 
with its influences. 

The creation of this great spiritual fellow- 
ship, numbering in all its branches over two 
millions of communicants, in so short a 
period; is a phenomenon unparalleled by any 
fact in the history of the Christian church 
since the apostolic era. Who can study the 
simplicity of its beginnings, the rapidity of 
its growth, the stability of its institutions, 
the amazing power of its influence on Chris- 
tianity in general, its present vitality and 
activity, its commanding position, and its 
prospective greatness, without exclaiming in 
a spirit of astonishment and gratitude, 
What hath God wrought ? 
I have already pointed out numerous 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 125 



spiritual advantages; which you may person- 
ally enjoy in the fellowship of Methodism. 
I now wish you to take a broader view — to 
stand like a traveller upon a mountain's peak^ 
and survey the system from its beginning 
until noW; — to study the character of its 
founders, mark the hand of God in its sur- 
prising development; examine its vast spirit- 
ual results; and convince yourself that; of all 
existing churches, it is the most highly 
honored of God; the most beneficial to the 
world. Let us glance first at the man by 
whose piety, laborS; and genius it arose. 

Methodism; considered as an organization; 
is of recent date. It sprang; as you know, 
from the pious labors of the two Wesleys 
and their devoted compeers. John Wesley, 
however, must be regarded as its true founder. 
But for him, though there might have been a 
powerful revival of spiritual religion, there 
would, in all probability, have been no Meth- 
odist church. He alone possessed the faculty 
of organization and government, which was 



126 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 



necessary to gather up, combine; and con- 
struct the spiritual results of the reviyal into 
a church. He led the great Methodistic 
movement; and stamped the image of his 
own mind upon it. He devised the simple 
institutions, organized the ministry; and 
governed the societies, which, in their devel- 
opment; grew into the various Methodist 
churches now existing in different parts of 
the world. It will, therefore; be proper to 
give you a brief sketch of his life and 
character. 

JoEX Wesley was born in the rectory of 
Epworth; England; June 17; 1703. His 
father; Samuel WesleY; the rector; was a 
scholarly; pious, sternly energetiC; indepen- 
dent man. — a true man and a faithful minister. 
His mother, Susa^^na Wesley, was a woman 
of extraordinary intelligence and force of 
mind, of correct judgment, vivid apprehen- 
sion of truth, and ardent piety. Under their 
training, Wesley passed his boyhood up to 
his eleventh year, his mother paying peculiar 



THE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 127 



attention to the formation of Ms character, 
because of his singular escape, when a little 
boy, from his chamber, when the rectory was 
destroyed by fire. He was educated, first at 
the Charter House, then at Oxford. He was 
ordained a deacon in the church of England, 
in 1725. The next year he was elected a 
"Fellow'' of Lincoln college, and in 1728 
was ordained a priest. 

For a few months, he acted as curate for 
his father at Epworth. But being strongly 
urged to become the tutor of several young 
gentlemen at Oxford, he returned thither in 
1729. His first act, almost, was to form a 
society composed of himself, his brother 
Charles, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Kirkham. 
The object of this society was "to promote 
each other's intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
improvement." To accomplish this, they 
spent " three or four evenings a week togeth 
er, reading the Greek Testament, with the 
Greek and Latin classics. On Sunday even- 
ings, they read divinity." They also 



128 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

adopted various rules for the better govern- 
ment of their lives, and the improvement of 
their time. They visited the sick, relieved 
the poor, circulated the scriptures, fasted 
much, prayed much, denied themselves of 
every sinful amusement and indulgence, at- 
tended the means of grace very strictly, and 
sought to reach the highest possible spiritual 
attainments. 

This strict course of life, so unusual 
among the inmates of the college, soon 
brought down an avalanche of persecution 
upon their heads. Scorn, rebuke, insult, fell 
upon them abundantly, from all quarters. 
Their fidelity to their sense of duty cost 
them the good opinion of most of their col- 
lege companions, who stigmatized them with 
such titles as the "Holy Club," the " Godly 
Club," the " Enthusiasts," the Reforming 
Club," "Methodists," "Supererogation men," 
and so on. But, like their master, they stood 
undaunted in the presence of persecution. 
Its only effect was to stimulate their zeal, 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 129 

quicken tlieir devotion, and increase their 
numbers. 

You will observe; my dear reader, that 
although these young men were termed Meth- 
odists at Oxford, by way of ridicule, yet 
Methodism proper was not yet organized. 
That band of young men did not constitute a 
^'Methodist society." Its members were 
only styled Methodists by way of reproach, 
just as spiritually minded men had been 
called Methodists " in a sermon preached 
at Lambeth a hundred years before, and at 
several other times and places. The first 
Methodist " Society," properly so called, was 
not formed until 1739, when Mr. Wesley 
organized "the United Society/'at the Foun^ 
dery in London. This, says Thomas Jack- 
SOX, in his life of Charles "Wesley, p. 179, 

was the rise of the United Societies, which 
now constitute what is usually called the 
Wesleyan connection." The rules for their 
government were drawn up in 1743, by Wes- 
ley, when he divided the societies into classes. 
9 



130 THE POUNDER OF METHODISM. 

Hence, all that one of our enemies has said 
about the Methodist church being composed 
in its origin of "four unregenerate young 
men," whose worship ivas reading the 
Greek and Latin classics/^ is the offspring 
of downright frivolity, if not of deliberate 
wickedness. 

After spending nearly six years as a tutor 
at Oxford, Mr. Wesley, having refused the 
rectorship of Epworth, made vacant by his 
father's death, sailed with his brother to 
Georgia, hoping " to raise up a holy people 
in that distant land.'' He was not very suc- 
cessful in his labors. The loose manners of 
the colonists called forth his sternest rebukes, 
which, with the strictness of his own life, and 
the stringency of his ecclesiastical discipline, 
excited great opposition. A bitter persecu- 
tion, headed by a worthless official named 
Causton, arose against him. The colony 
resounded with the outcries of his adversa- 
ries. They propagated all sorts of slanders 
about him, and finally presented him to the 



THE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 131 



grand jury. This jury, which was packed 
with his avowed enemieS; brought in two 
bills containing ten counts, nine of which 
related to his ecclesiastical administration. 
The whole, if true, did not affect his moral 
or religious character in the smallest degree. 
But they were all either false or frivolous, 
as was shown in a paper sent to the trustees 
of the colony, by twelve of the jurors who 
dissented from the majority. After seeking 
in^vain to obtain a hearing before the court, 
and seeing no opportunity for further useful- 
ness in Georgia, Mr. Wesley, having given 
public notice of his intention, left Savannah, 
and returned to England, where he arrived, 
in February, 1738. After his departure, the 
true character of his chief persecutor, Mr. 
Causton, became apparent. That worthy 
had already left England, in disgrace, for a 
fraud on the government. Detected in a sim- 
ilar peculation in the colony, he was deposed 
from office by the Governor. And such was 
the reaction of public feeling in Mr. Wesley's 



132 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

favor, that when Mr. Whitefield yisited Sa- 
vannah, a few months after Wesley's depart- 
ure, he wrote thus : — " The good Mr. John 
Wesley has done in America, under God, is 
inexpressible. His name is very precious 
among the people! " 

The only fault committed by Mr. Wesley in 
Georgia, was his perhaps too rigid enforce- 
ment of the canons of his church. His moral 
character was unspotted. His religious life 
was strict, almost ascetic. For these things 
worldly-minded professors, and world-peek- 
ing colonists hated him. Methodists have no 
need to blush for that part of their founder's 
life spent in^Georgia, albeit an unscrupulous 
scribbler has had the hardihood, in contradic- 
tion of all the facts in the case, to insinuate 
the contrary. 

Up to the time of Wesley's return to Eng- 
land, he had not enjoyed a clear consciousness 
of faith in Christ. His religion was that of 
the legalist, consisting in unceasing devotion 
to th^ duties, unaccompanied by the consola- 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 133 



tionS; of an Evangelical faith. His voyage to 
America had introduced him to the Moravi- 
ans. What he saw of their experience con- 
vinced him that his o^vn religious life was de- 
fective, and prepared him to listen to his 
learned friend Peter Bohler, through whose 
instructions he was led to trust in Christ 
alone for " the righteousness which is of faith." 
On the 24th of May, 1738; while listening to 
a discourse on Christian experience, he says : 
"I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I 
did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salva- 
tion ; and an assurance was given me that he 
and taken away my sins, even minej and saved 
me from the law of sin and death." He was 
then thirty-five years old. 

With an overflowing heart Mr. Wesley now 
began to proclaim the doctrine of salvation 
by faith, first in the churches, and then, at the 
suggestion of his friend Whitefield, in the 
open air. The efi'ect was instantaneous and 
wonderful. He seemed girded with power 
from above. Wherever he preached men were 



134 THE POUNDER OP METHODISM. 

pricked to the heart. Streams of blessings 
poured from heaven upon his labors. His 
brother Charles, his friend Whitefield, and 
several other clergymen of the church of Eng- 
land; were equally successful. Men and wo- 
men were converted by thousands. The ex- 
piring dissenting churches of the day were 
quickened. New life impregnated British 
Protestantism. The infidelity of the age was 
rebuked. Hundreds of men were thrust out 
into the ministry. Societies were formed in 
all parts of the kingdom. A conference of 
ministers was organized, and, at length, a 
powerful connection established. 

These results were not accomplished with- 
out great toils, great sacrifices, great suiffer- 
ings. To achieve them, Mr. Wesley preached 
forty thousand sermons, and travelled two 
hundred and twenty thousand miles. He, 
with his coadjutors, also endured much perse- 
cution. I know it has been tauntingly said, 
that Methodism " cannot boast of the honors 
and unmistakeable characteristics of Christ's 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 135 

church — the loss of one drop of blood, a be- 
headed saint, persecution^ a flight; or having 
been hid from the rage of enemies for a sea- 
son." "And that no Methodist was ever be- 
headed for his attachment to the truth ; never 
persecuted to death or to flight, for his re- 
ligion." (Iron Wheel, pp. 29, 32.) 

These statements are slanderous. A man 
who would make them, would affirm that light 
is darkness, if it suited his purpose. Metho- 
dism never persecuted ? Alas, how ignorant 
or depraved that writer must be who so 
affirms! Methodism never persecuted? 
What is the history of its infancy, but a re- 
cord of persecutions? — aye, of persecutions 
as thrilling and severe as those recorded in 
the Acts of the Apostles. True, the fact of 
its rise in a Protestant and nominally Chris- 
tian country, prevented its confessors from 
sealing their faith on the scaffold. But if it 
be persecution to suffer the loss of reputation, 
the spoiling of goods, personal violence, judi- 
cial accusations, imprisonment, fines, and to 



136 THE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 

be put in constant peril of life; then the early 
Methodists have suffered persecutions abun 
dant, and the assertion of Mr. Graves is as 
false as his favorite dogma, that the Baptist 
is the only true church of Christ on earth. 

Partly to confute his false assertion, and 
partly to refresh you with a few pictures of 
the unsurpassed heroism of the early Metho- 
dists, I have brought together a few facts 
from the history of the Wesleys. 

I have already told you how the Wesleys 
were persecuted by their college associates at 
Oxford; and how John suffered for his re- 
ligious strictness in G-eorgia. But when the 
devoted brothers broke away from the order 
of the church; and began their extraordinary 
career of evangelism; the outcry against them 
was so loud and general as to put them out- 
side the pale of respectable society. They 
were excluded from the pulpits of the church 
of England; denounced by nearly all; regarded 
as enthusiasts and madmeu; and treated as 
the ^' filth and offscouring of all things." So 



THE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 137 

strong did the current of prejudice run against 
these great and good men, that he who dared 
to defend them, periled his own reputation. 
^ How notorious is it/' says Wesley, ^' that if 
a man dare to open his mouth in my favor, it 
needs only be replied, suppose you are a 
Methodist too,' and all he has said is to pass 
for nothing ! " A fact or two, selected at 
random from their memoirs, will show that 
this expression was far from being hyper- 
bolical. 

At St. Iyes, the rector of the parish church 
publicly denounced Charles Wesley and the 
Methodists, as enemies of the church, sedu- 
cers, troublers, scribes and pharisees, hypo- 
crites. At Wednock, the curate, Charles 
Wesley being present, delivered himself of 
such a "hotch-potch of railing, foolish lies, as 
Satan himself might have been ashamed of." 
During his first vist to Cornwall the " clergy 
preached against him with great vehemence, 
and represented his character and designs in 
the worst possible light." At Cork, in Ire- 



138 THE FOUNDEB, OF METHODISM. 

land; the grand jury found " Charles Wesley 
to be a person of ill fame, a vagabond, and a 
common disturber of his majesty^s peace/^ 
and they prayed that " he might he trans- 
ported ! " And at Birstall, in 1744, a charge 
of treason was preferred against him, and a 
warrant issued summoning witnesses to ap- 
pear against him ! 

If a good man's reputation is next in value 
to the purity of his character — if it be a 
jewel of higher value than the diadems of 
princes, dearer to a man of a high sense of 
honor than even life itself, then it is clear 
that the early Methodists demonstrated their 
fidelity, when they cast it away for Christ's 
sake. To say that a people who purchased 
their ecclesiastical existence with the loss of 
their reputation were never persecuted, is to 
drivel, not reason. 

But the early Methodists did not escape 
with the loss of reputation alone. They were 
persecuted to the spoiling of their goods, to 
flight, to stoning, to suffering, and even to 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 139 



death, as the following facts, selected at ran- 
dom from a multitude of similar events, will 
abundantly prove. 

For crossing the field of an enemy to re- 
ligion, to meet his congregation at Kensing- 
ton Common, Charles Wesley was fined fifty 
dollars with costs, amounting to as much 
more. 

At Nottingham, the rabble of the county 
laid waste all before them that belonged to 
the Methodists. Two of the brethren lost a 
thousand dollars' worth of their property. 

At St. Ives, while Charles Wesley was 
preaching, the people beat their drums, shout- 
ed, stopped their ears, ran upon him, and 
tried to pull him down. With a fearless 
spirit the heroic reformer retreated from 
these "lions' whelps," and escaped unhurt. 
At MoRVA, just as he named his text, " an 
army of rebels broke in upon his meeting, 
threatening to murder the people. They 
broke the sconces, dashed the windows in 
pieces, bore away the shutters, benches, poor 



140 THE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 

box, and all but the stone walls. Several 
times they lifted their hands to strike Mr. 
Wesley, but a stronger arm restrained them. 
They beat and dragged the women about, 
particularly one of a great age, and " tram- 
pled on them without mercy, ''^ At Wednock, 
the mob, says Charles Wesley, assaulted us 
with sticks and stones, and endeavored to 
pull me down. Ten cowardly rufl&ans I saw 
upon one unarmed man, beating him with 
their clubs, till they felled him to the ground. 
Another escaped by the swiftness of his horse. 
At St. Ives, again, the mob threw eggs in at 
the windows. Others cast great stones to 
break what remained of the shutters. Oth- 
ers struck the women^ and swore they would 
pull the house down. 

During one of his tours in Ireland, Charles 
was riding with several brethren from Tyr- 
rell's Pass, to Athlone, when he was beset by 
a company of Papists. One of his compan- 
ions was knocked from his horse by a stone, 
beat in the face with a club, and would have 



THE FOUXDER OF METHODISM. 141 



been killed Tvith a knife but for timely aid. 
Another was struck on the head with a stone. 
Wesley receiyed a yiolent blow in the back. 
But for the timely arriyal of a company of 
dragoons from Athlone. the whole company 
would; in all probability, haye been murdered. 
This murderous assault was planned and in- 
stigated by Father Ferrill, a Catholic priest. 

At Cork, the Methodists were sorely per- 
secuted. Any of the baser sort, from time 
to time, cut and beat both men and women, 
to the hazard of their liyes. It was dang-er- 
0U3 for any member of the society to be seen 
abroad. 

At Wedxesbury, in October. 1743, Mr. 
John Wesley was greatly maltreated by a 
mob, which was instigated to driyf^ him out 
of the county by the incessant denunciations 
of the yicar of the place, the curate of Wal- 
sal, and the yicar of Darlastan. 

After preaching at Wednesbury, Mr. Wes- 
ley retired to write at the house of a friend. 
The mob surrounded the house, shouting: 



142 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

Bring out the minister ! We will have the 
minister ! " After some parleying, Mr. Wes- 
ley showed himself at the door, and asked to 
go with them to a magistrate. It was now 
dark and raining. But they dragged him to 
Bentley Hall, two miles distant. From 
thence they took him to Walsal. At last 
they concluded to conduct him back to Wed- 
nesbury; but on their way met another mob, 
and fell to JBghting among themselves. As 
they re-entered Wednesbury, Mr. Wesley 
seeing the door of a large house open, at- 
tempted to enter, but one of the mob caught 
him by the hair of the head and pulled him 
back into the middle of the crowd. They 
then carried him the entire length of the 
town. Seeing another door half open, Wes- 
ley made toward it, but was forbidden to 
enter by the owner, lest the mob should pull 
it down over his head. 

Wesley now confronted his foes and asked, 

Are you willing to hear me speak? " 
^^No! No! knock his brains out! Down 



THE FOUXDEE OF METHODISM. 143 



^ith him ! Away with Mm^ kill him at once ; 
tear off his clothes 1 Drown him 1 Hang 
him on the next tree I Throw him into a 
pit ! " yelled the mob. waxing increasingly 
furious. 

Xay, but we will hear him first!'' cried 
others; while others again said. ^- Don't kill 
him here, carry him out of the town ! Don't 
bring his blood upon us ! " 

He then spoke for a Cjuarter of an hour, 
till his voice failed. The mob then renewed 
its shoutS; threatening him with Tiolence. 
At length; three or four stout fellows^ one of 
whom was the ringleader; moved by a sudden 
impulse, resolved to rescue him. After much 
struggling and hustling, they got him out of 
the town, on to the meadows. "When the 
crowd, wearied with its own violence, had 
retired, these men conducted him to his lods:- 
ings. His clothes were torn to tatters; he 
had been struck at repeatedly, and many had 
tried to pull him down. 

During this frightful scene the members 



144 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

of the society^ excepting four who kept with 
him ready to die with him if they could not 
save him, had fled for their lives. Yet the 
mob threw one woman into the river, and 
broke the arm of a young man. 

Commenting on his remarkable deliverance 
from this mob, Mr. Wesley refers to similar 
hair-breadth escapes from the sons of Belial," 
in the following language : Two years ago 
a piece of brick grazed my shoulders. It 
was a year after that a stone struck me be- 
tween the eyes. Last month I received one 
blow, and this evening two ; one man 
struck me on the breast with all his might 
and the other on the mouth, with such force 
that the blood gushed out immediately / " 

When the ringleader of this furious mob 
was converted, as he was a very few days 
afterwards, Charles Wesley asked him what 
he thought of his brother. ^» Think of him ! " 
he replied, " that he is a mon of God, and 
God was on his side, when so many of us 
could not kill one mon ! 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 145 

At Dudley, says C. Wesley, the Methodist 
preacher was cruelly abused by a mob of 
Papists and dissenters. Probably he would 
have been murdered but for an honest Quaker 
who helped him to escape with his broad hat 
and coat. 

At Darlaston, rioters broke into the 
houses of the Methodists, robbing and de- 
stroying ; and papers were sent round to the 
adjacent towns inviting all the country to 
rise and destroy the Methodists ! 

At Nottingham, says C. Wesley, I called 
at Bro. Saut's, and found him just brought 
home for dead. The mob had knocked him 
down, and would probably have murdered 
him, but for the cries of a little child. It 
was some time before he came to himself, 
having been struck on the temples by a large 
log of wood. 

Up to 1744, the magistrates had generally 
refused to act, and had left the Methodi.sts at 
the mercy of violent and cruel men. Then 
they interfered, and endeavored by an abuse 
10 



146 THE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 



of their power^ and the perversion of law, 
to crush a defenceless people. This made 
their condition worse. 

Another species of indignity to which the 
early Methodist preachers were subjected 
was their impressment into the British army^ 
on the pretence that their occupation was 
irregular, and their lives vagabondish. 
Among those who suffered in this way, were 
John Nelson, Thomas Beard, Mr. Downes, 
and Mr. Maxpield. These devoted breth- 
ren were torn from their families, shut up in 
prison, and compelled to do military duty 
until their friends procured their deliverance 
by application to the heads of the Govern- 
ment, or by procuring substitutes. But poor 
Thomas Beard found deliverance through 
death only. He was too delicate to endure 
the fatigues of a soldier's life. He sank 
beneath the burden, and died as truly a mar- 
tyr to Christianity as Paul or Peter. 

But I must cease my citations. I could 
fill this volume with the details of the per- 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 147 



secutions endured by the first generation of 
Methodists for the Gospel's sake. No his- 
toric fact is more certain than that Mr. 
Wesley, with most of his early preachers 
could adopt in substance; the language of the 
persecuted and laborious Paul, and say. 
Thrice was I beaten with rodS; once was I 
stoned. In journeyings often, in perils 

of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by 
mine own countrymen, in perils in the city, 
in perils in the wilderness, in perils amongst 
false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, 
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
fastings often, in cold and nakedness." 

But notwithstanding these undeniable facts, 
a living Baptist preacher dares to assert that 
Methodism was never persecuted to the loss 
of a drop of blood, or to flight! And a 
Congregational minister in the State of Mas- 
sachusetts endorses him, Strang-e assertion! 
Deformed ofi'spring of a mind willingly ignor- 
ant of the true history of the church it ma- 



148 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

ligns ! Its author cannot credit his own 
assertion, unless he is 

" Like one 
Who having to untmtn, by telling of it, 
Made such a sinner of his memory, 
To credit his own lie." 

Having endured "hardness like a good sol- 
dier/' and having reached the green old age 
of eighty-eight; John Wesley died, March 2d; 
1791. His death was as beautiful as his life 
was active. He retained his vigor to the 
last; and died almost on the field of battle, 
exclaiming; as he prepared to cast aside his 
mortal robe : " The best of all iS; God is 
WITH us. He causeth his servant to lie down 
in peace. The Lord is with us. The God 
of Jacob is our refuge. I'll praise. I'll 
praise ! Farewell." And thuS; with the song 
of a conqueror on his lip?; he ascended to 
heaven. * 

Before calling your attention to the spir- 
itual structure founded by this great reformer, 
I will point out some interesting resem- 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 149 

blances between him and the hero of the 
^^Reformation/' Martin Luther. Though 
somewhat episodical; I know you will not 
object to it; because you are anxious to attain 
a true conception of the founder of our 
church. 

To begin with their birth; I find Luther 
born and nursed in the lap of respectable 
poverty. Wesley had a kindred origin. 
For; although the family at Epworth could 
boast a higher lineage and a superior social 
grade to that of the German miner; yet; it is 
questionable whether the pecuniary straits of 
the good rectoT; Wesley's father; at Epworth; 
were not as pinching as those of Luther's 
peasant parents at Eisleben. And; if young 
Luther; after the fashion of poor German stu- 
dents; sung songs at Eisenach for bread, 
young Wesley, like many other English schol- 
ars, obtained his education from the munifi- 
cent provisions of the Charter House, and 
from a foundation scholarship at Ohristchurch ; 
at which places he doubtless endured more 



150 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

from the merciless despotism practised upon 
a poor ^^fag" in those days, than Luther ever 
suffered in his peregrinations as a beggar stu- 
dent. 

Intellectually J they appear to have be- 
longed to the same high grade of minds. 
They were both master spirits, large in 
heart and brain;" yet, perhaps, neither of 
them can properly be classed with the very 
highest order of philosophic intellects, the 
splendor of whose genius places them in un- 
approachable grandeur, far above the ordi- 
nary level of mankind. Still, they were great 
men, and men of extraordinary powers. To 
both, the acquisition of learning was easy ; 
and, as in their youth both led a scholastic 
life, they became superior scholars, thorough- 
ly versed in the classics, well read in general 
literature, in theology, and particularly in the 
Holy Scriptures. Both had remarkably 
ready and retentive memories ; large powers 
of perception and comparison; and hence, 
they both became admirable dialecticians. 



THE FOUXDER OF METHODISM. 151 



In original imaginative power^ I incline to 
give the palm to Lntlier ; while, in everything 
relating to taste, the laurel must be placed 
on the brow of Wesley. They both appear 
to have possessed the power of realising 
truth in an unusual degree. To them, their 
ideas were as living presences, in whose 
reality and truthfulness they believed as 
firmly as in their own consciousness. Hence 
proceeded that wondrous vigor which charac- 
terized their preaching and writing; which 
made their thoughts glow with the energy of 
life, and gave their words a force that was 
irresistible and overwhelming. 

In their early religious experience, we find 
some points of dissimilitude. Luther, though 
always bearing an unstained moral character, 
was not serious in his childhood and youth. 
He relished the facetious and military 
amusements so beloved by G-erman students ; 
and his mind turned with strong aversion 
from the serious aspects of the priesthood, 
and even from the gravity of the law. A 



152 THE POUNDER OF METHODISM. 

sudden judgment — the death of a compan- 
ion, struck down at his side by a flash of 
lightning — first turned his mind to sober 
thoughts of spiritual things. That catastro- 
phe, acting upon his impulsive nature, led to 
a sudden revolution in his purposes. It sent 
him to the monastery at Erfurt. It made 
him a priest. 

But Wesley was always serious. His pure 
life knew no episode of frivolity or worldly 
folly. At the age of eight years he partook 
of the sacrament, and was grave and prayer- 
ful from his boyhood to his tomb. Yet had 
they this in common : they both struggled for 
a long time in darkness, through ignorance 
of the great doctrine of justification by faith. 
Both sought for peace on the ascetic princi- 
ple — by works. Bitter tears did Luther 
shed in his lonesome cell, cruel penances did 
he undergo, long fastings and weary watch- 
ings did he endure, in the vain hope of find- 
ing relief. And by severe self-denial, by 
long and frequent prayers, by self-sacrificing 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 153 

acts of benevolence^ Wesley toiled to secure 
intercourse with Heaven. Of course they 
both failed. But in the conflict the monk of 
Erfurt suffered more than the " fellow " of 
Oxford; for his mental agonies well nigh 
cost him his reason. This was partly owing 
to the solitude in which he lived. His mind 
had no relief through contact with the world. 
It was shut up to its own reflections. Had 
Wesley, with his almost equally intense mind, 
been confined, like his great prototype, he 
had doubtless suffered with equal anguish. 
But he, while unresting and sad at heart, 
found some relief for his feelings in the 
ceaseless, self-imposed activity of his life. 

Luther penetrated the gloom which envel- 
oped him, unaided by man. By profound re- 
flection on the Word of God, illuminated by 
the Divine Spirit, he discovered the sweet 
doctrine that man is justified by faith alone. 
This delightful truth broke in upon his long, 
dark night of grief, like a bright and beauti- 
ful star, and it guided him to a peace so de- 



154 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

lightful that he declared it was like entering 
the open portals of Paradise. 

It was otherwise with Wesley. He was 
led to the discovery of this cardinal truth by 
the guidance of human minds. To me it is 
one of the most wonderful facts in history, 
that a mind so clear and logical, so well read 
in the homilies of his church, and the writ- 
ings of the Eeformers, so conversant with the 
Bible, so sincere, so earnest in its seekings 
after truth, should miss of finding this sim- 
ple doctrine. What is it but a singular illus- 
tration of human blindness in spiritual things, 
without the light of the Holy Spirit ? Per- 
haps it was necessary to fit the learned Oxo- 
nian for his mission, that his steps should be 
directed to Christ through the instrumentali- 
ty of the simple-hearted Moravians. 

But these great spirits resembled each 
other in that utter unselfishness and purity 
of intention which are the essential elements 
of the martyr-spirit. Luther's worldly inter- 
ests were on the side of silence towards the 



THE FOUXDER OF METHODISM. 155 



abuses of the papacy. Had lie sought to se- 
cure theni; there is little question that he 
might have ^orn a mitre. The same is true 
of Wesley. But the history of both men 
shoTvs that, in their respective movements, 
they ignored all selfish considerations; and 
deliberately placed wealth; reputation; and 
personal safety on the altar of duty. Wedded 
to truth; they were dead to all other voices 
and charms. HencC; Luther; with all his 
greatnesS; lived in, poverty; and died leav- 
ing only a house and a legacy of a thousand 
florins to his beloved OatharixE; and her 
children. Wesley; toO; though considerable 
sums of money passed through his hands, died 
comparatively a poor man, owing to his sys- 
tematic and princely benevolence; having no 
property except his publications; which he 
bequeathed to the connection. 

Agaiu; I see a marked agreement between 
them in their habit of acting independently; 
and from their own self-determinations. 
Neither of them despised the counsels of 



156 THE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 

other men; but neither acted from mere ad- 
vice. Their decisions were made from the 
depths of their own minds, after a calm and 
careful survey of the path to be trodden, and 
prayerful application to Heaven for light. 
Thus, Luther's first denunciations of Tetzel, 
his burning of the papal bull, his appearance 
before the diet at Worms, his marriage with 
the nun, Catharine Von Bora, with all his 
great movements, proceeded from his own 
purposes independently formed, and carried 
out on his own personal responsibility. The 
same things are equally true of Wesley. His 
own mind always chose the path he trod, 
and chose it distinctly as being its own choice 
— its own view of duty. Eminently, there- 
fore, did these great men possess the quality 
of self-determination. 

In courage, too, they were equally heroic 
and sublime. They both stood firm and un- 
daunted in danger ; immovable and unchange- 
able in difficulty. Luther's courage is unques- 
tionable. The man, who, with the fate of 



THE FOUXDER OF METHODISE. 



157 



Huss before his eyes, with the dust of imiium- 
bered martyrs floating on the winds over 
every part of Europe, could stand up and 
strike a blow, for which they had perished, 
who dared to smite a foe, which, Bpjapjus 
likC; could stretch forth a hundred arms of 
power; and whose voice made monarchs trem- 
ble in then- palaces — that man was no cow- 
ard I Without the loftiest courage how could 
he have stood undaunted in the German Diet^ 
before nearly three hundred dignitaries, to 
assert truths, which, for a thousand years, 
men had not dared to speak ? The brave 
knight, George Fruxdsberg, did not over- 
estimate his peril, when he said to him as he 
entered the diet : "Monk! look to it! you 
are about to hazard a more perilous march 
than we have ever done ! But he did haz- 
ard it, with more than knightly courage : and 
his bravery stands unimpeachable. 

Nor was Wesley less courageous than Lu- 
ther. True, he never threw himself on the 
bosses of the papal buckler, for he had no 



158 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 



occasion ; nor did he ever confront a royal 
diet ; but he did frequently do that which de- 
manded equal self-possession, and equal hero- 
ism. He stood unappalled in the midst of 
furious mobs which clamored for his life, and 
threatened to tear him in pieces. The man 
who could do thiS; could have denounced the 
Yatican, or stood unmoved in the halls of 
kings, had circumstances required. His cour- 
age, like Luther's, grew out of an absorption 
in the great object of his mission, so com- 
plete as to make him superior to every sign 
of personal danger. As in the Eoyal Diet, 
Luther forgot himself in his desire to give 
utterance to truth ; ^o, in the mobs of Eng- 
land, Wesley's heart burned with a desire to 
save his angry enemies, so earnest, it exclud- 
ed all thou2:hts of himself. The courao'e of 
both rested on moral principles, for neither 
of them possessed that natural courage which 
led Nelson to say he "never knei#^fear ; " 
knd which rendered him perfectly indifferent 
amid showers of cannon balls. The terror 



THE FOUXDER OF AIETH0DIS3I. 



159 



of Lntlier at his compamon's death; and Wes- 
ley's fear of death in the Atlantic storm, 
show that their natural courage Tvas not 
uncommon. Theirs v^SlS a moral heroism, 
sustained by moral forces, and not by mere 
animal stoicism. 

In zeal, in moral energy, in unceasing in- 
dustry, they were both examples. Luther 
did the duties of a university professor, of a 
preacher, and an author. His vrritings. like 
"Wesley's, are a library in themselves: vrhile 
the amount of travel and of preaching per- 
formed by "Wesley almost exceeds belief. 

As writers, they are alike distinguished by 
the nervousness, vigor, directness^ and bold- 
ness of their style. Luther is the better po- 
lemic of the two : Wesley the more spiritual 
and apostolic; Luther is diffuse: Wesley is 
concise and epigrammatic; Luther uses the 
most rhetoric, but it is sometimes rude and 
coarse ; while Wesley, rigidly simple and un- 
adorned, always writes with purity, and even 
delicacy. Both are distinguished for their 



160 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

habit of deferential appeal to the Scriptures 
as the source of all authority, and the only 
standard of truth. 

Viewing their religious character, we give 
the preference to Wesley. His repose on 
Christ was more calm and abiding than that 
of the great German. Luther was subject to 
tormenting mental conflicts, and to seasons 
of deep depression. Wesley rested in calm, 
almost undisturbed, composure upon God. 
Luther was less meek, less patient, less gen- 
tle than Wesley. He dealt more harshly 
with his adversaries, and displayed a temper 
and stubbornness, at times, which mar the 
beauty of his piety. Wesley, on the contra- 
ry, was mild and gentle, even toward his ene- 
mies. Though he exercised a vast amount 
of power over his societies, toward the last 
of his life, yet he never used it harshly or se- 
verely. He regarded his societies as his 
family, his children, beloved in Christ ; and 
his authority was that of the mildest and 
most tender parent. But it ought not to be 



THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 161 



forgotten tliat Wesley's early trainings by Ms 
excellent mother^ gave Mm the advantage, in 
matters of self-discipline, over Luther. Be 
sides thiS; the manners and spirit of Luther's 
times must be considered. He had to do 
with headstrong and fiery mindS; and to ec • 
dure harrassing trials ; he had to watch 
against an intriguing priesthood; who thirst- 
ed, like wolves, for his blood. In fact, his 
public life was mostly passed in a whirlpool 
of tumultuous human passions. That ho 
should, under such circumstances, yield, at 
times, to the natural impetuosity of his tem- 
per, is not surprising. Had he, however, 
possessed the clear, triumphant faith of Wes- 
ley, he might have won a more perfect vic- 
tory, and have become a more complete ex- 
ample of the truth he taught. 

Other points of comparison crowd upon 
me, but I forbear; and close with a glance at 
their respective labors. Yet who can either 
estimate or compare the labors of these two 
reformers ? To estimate the value of their 
11 



162 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

work is impossible ; for it iS; as yet, incom- 
plete. They still live. Their spirits still 
animate society, and not until the last judg- 
ment will it be possible to measure the ex- 
tent and value of the work they wrought. 

But their labors may be compared. Thus 
viewed, the reformation of Luther appears to 
have prepared the way for the Wesleyan re- 
vival. Luther's mission was chiefly to eman- 
cipate thought — to set mind free from the 
chains of authority — to teach ecclesiastical 
and civil rulers, that they have no control over 
the human conscience. The means by which 
he did this, was the simple assertion of evan- 
gelical doctrine in opposition to papal here- 
sies. He affirmed every man's individual 
right to judge of all questions of truth and 
duty, independently of priest, pope, or coun- 
cil. By thus establishing the paramount 
authority of conscience and Scripture, he par- 
alyzed the arm of the Papacy, he freed vast 
numbers from its bondage, and taught them to 
exercise the right of private judgment, and 



TEE FOUNDER OP METHODISM. 163 



of freedom to worship God. In the perform- 
ance of this great work, the truths he uttered 
became a seed of spiritual life to many; 
but; mainly, his reformation was rather a 
reformation of opinion — a declaration of re- 
ligious liberty — than a spiritual revival. 

In this mixed form the reformation found 
its way to Great Britain, where it produced 
the Scottish Covenanter, and the English 
Puritan. By their sturdy fidelity, and by 
their swords, the great idea of the Lutheran 
Reformation — religious liberty — was firmly 
established in British institutions ; but its 
spiritual element, when Mr. Wesley ap* 
peared, had well nigh* exhausted itself, and 
spiritual religion was almost extinct there, 
and throughout the world. 

Wesley's mission was, therefore, to revive 
the spiritual element of the Lutheran Refor- 
mation. But for Luther, he would have had 
to do Luther's work. But that being done, 
the doctrine of religious liberty being under- 
stood and established, it was given to him to 



164 THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. 

spread a new religious life throughout his 
country and the world. This, by the grace 
of God; he accomplished. His voice woke 
the reformation from its slumber, roused it 
to an evangelic vitality — such as it never 
previously enjoyed; and which has since 
spread itself through many lands. Thus 
while Luther's work prepared the way for 
Wesley, Wesley put new life into the Lu- 
theran Eeformation, and pushed it to glori- 
ous spiritual results. And now that the 
Christian life, evoked by their instrumen- 
tality, flows on, in one widening, deepening, 
branching stream of blessedness, to all parts 
of the earth ; ere lon^, all nations shall hail 
it with joy ; and, when all have tasted its 
blessedness, the world will do equal honor to 
both, as great, good, and mighty men of God, 
entrusted by him to do a good work, and as 
having proved faithful in the execution of 
that high trust. May their spirit live and 
abide in the church forever. Amen ! 



CHAPTER VII. 



RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 

S from the smitten rock in the 
wilderness, the abundant waters 
flowed at the bidding of the 
Almighty, to quench the thirst 
a feverish and fainting people, 
d Methodism flow forth to give 
life to the expiring Christianity 
of the age. Its birth was from above, and 
its' author was the Holy Ghost. The "Wes- 
ley s, Whitefield, and their coadjutors, were 
only the instruments of its propagation. On 
being powerfully converted, those holy men, 
following the impulses of the spiritual life, 
went forth preaching the truth, and seeking 
to spread scriptural holiness over the land 
of their birth. The idea of founding a 
church, did not enter into their conceptions 




166 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 

for many years ; and when it appeared neces- 
sary to the spiritual welfare of his societies 
that they should be organized into churches, 
Mr. Wesley accepted the idea as a necessity, 
and provided for its realization with manifest 
reluctance. He had no ambition to be the 
founder of a sect. That honor was awarded 
him by the Providence of God. 

I have attributed the rise of Methodism to 
the Spirit of God, Am I not right ? Whence 
did it come, if not from the workings of that 
Holy Being? It certainly did not spring 
from the English Episcopal Church, for that 
church did not give the Wesleys a clear con- 
ception of the cardinal doctrine of justifica- 
tion by faith only. They were indebted for 
their perception of that truth to Peter Boh- 
ler, and the Moravian brethren. Hence, the 
human instrumentality through which the 
spiritual life of Methodism flowed, was not 
the Episcopal, but the Moravian Church ; a 
fact which sufficiently answers all the rant of 
the " Iron Wheel " about the relations of 



RISE AND GEOWTH OF METHODISM. ' 161 

Methodism to the English Episcopal Church. 
But the Moravians ^rere only instruments. 
The life of Methodism came from heaven, 
when, on the evening of May 24, 1738, God 
strangely warmed " John Wesley's heart, 
and gave him assurance that he " had taken 
away " his sins. 

That experience was Mr. Wesley's Pente- 
cost. Three days before, Charles had expe- 
rienced a similar baptism. By the self-same 
Spirit, the brothers were made new men in 
Christ Jesus. Hitherto, they had been ser- 
vants ; now they were children. From this 
time, as with the Apostles after their Pente- 
cost, a divine energy attended their preaching. 
Vast multitudes were awakened and con- 
verted. These new-born souls, attracted to 
their spiritual parents and to each other, by 
the affinities of their new interior life, met, 
like the disciples in the primitive church, for 
prayer and spiritual fellowship. They de- 
sired Mr. Wesley's advice. For the sake of 
convenience and order, he formed them first 



168 RISE AND GROWTH OP METHODISM. 

into societies, and then into classes. When 
these societies multiplied, he drew up " rules 
for their goyernment. When the Holy Spirit 
moved numbers of the converts to preach 
the gospel, Wesley employed them, with 
manifest reluctance at first, to call the nation 
to repentance. When these preachers in- 
creased, and God had abundantly owned 
their labors, he was fully satisfied that their 
vocation was from above ; and, therefore, in 
1744, he formed them into a Conference. 
Thus he proceeded, step by step, wisely pro- 
viding for exigencies as they arose, but never 
anticipating the progress of events. His aim 
was strictly a spiritual one. His personal 
wish was that his societies should remain in 
connection with the Established Church. 
But God overruled that wish, and he was 
compelled, at last, to give them the only re- 
maining thing necessary to constitute them 
churches of Christ, viz. : the privilege of hav- 
ing the sacraments administered by their own 
preachers, and in their own houses of wor« 



RISE A^'D GROWTH OF METHODISM. 169 

sliip. When this was vieldecl. they ceased to 
be mere societies in a church — they became 
churches of Christ, having within themselves 
all the elements which went to make up the 
apostolic church, viz. : an interior life derived 
from the Holy Spirit, the preached Word, the 
ordinances of the gospel, meetings for Chris- 
tian fellowship, government. In one word, 
they were essentially identical with the first 
church at Jerusalem, which is described as 
receiving the '-word,*' the ordinances, and as 
continuing in fellowship and in prayers. 
See Acts 2:41, 42. 

Such, in brief, was the rise of Methodism 
in England. Small in its beginning — a 
cloud no bigger than a man's hand — it grew 
with wonderful rapidity. It throve in spite 
of thp ocorn of the rich, the contumely of the 
proud, the persecutions of the ministry, (the 
dissenting clergy not excepted.) and the bar- 
barity of mobs. Like the chamomile, the 
more it was trampled upon, the more it flour- 
ished. Hence, when Mr, Wesley died, fifty- 



170 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM, 

two years after he organized the first Metho- 
dist Society, properly so called, his societies 
in Great Britain alone, included upwards of 
eighty thousand souls ! 

In America, the rise of Methodism was 
also distinctly marked by the finger of God. 
His providence provided for its existence on 
this Continent through several instruments. 
To New York he directed the step*s of Philip 
Embury, a local preacher from Ireland, who 
arrived in that city in 1765. The absence of 
spiritual help, and the irreligious influence of 
the time, caused Mr. Embury to neglect his 
soul, and to grow worldly. To revive him, 
God led an elect lady, Barbara Hick, with 
her family, from Ireland to New York. In 
her heart the fires of grace burned glorious- 
ly. Her rebuke awoke the backsliding local 
preacher to a sense of duty. He returned 
to his Redeemer, preached the gospel in his 
own house, formed a class, hired a room for 
public worship, and thus laid the foundations 
of the Methodist temple on this Continent. 



RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 171 

But if these emigrants at New York had 
failed to plant the good seed of Methodism, 
Captain Webb, converted under Wesley, a 
" man of fire," was residing in Albany, faithful- 
ly cherishing the life of God, and ready to 
embrace the first opportunity to sow the liv- 
ing seed of truth. But Embury was before him 
in the work ; and him the Captain greatly as- 
sisted while in New York on a visit, and 
afterwards when he became a resident of Ja- 
maica, L. I. By their mutual labors, Metho- 
dism was planted in New York. In 1768, it 
sent out its utterances from its first Ameri- 
can chapel on Golden Hill, in John Street. 

Still another instrument for its propaga- 
tion rose up in Maryland, in the person of 
Robert Strawbridge, also a local preacher 
from Ireland. He brought a warm heart over 
the Atlantic, and, like a faithful man, began 
preaching in his own house, as soon as he 
was fairly settled. His success was such that 
a society was formed, and a log chapel built^ 
about as early as the chapel in New York. 



172 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 

Thus you see how God cared for Metho- 
dism in America; by directing these local 
preachers to three different points, and by 
guiding the steps of a pious matron to the 
doors of the slumbering Philip. Was ever 
event more signally marked by the finger 
of God? 

I cannot detain you to watch the growth 
of this mustard seed/' as it grew into the 
great tree which it has since become. It is 
enough to state, that in the brief period of 
little more than a century from its original 
planting, it has become the largest, fairest, 
stateliest of ecclesiastical trees ; its branches 
overspread the earth, its fruit imparts life to 
over two millions of communicants, and its 
doctrines are preached to probably 7iot less 
than ten millions of the human race ! 

Nowhere has Methodism spread more rap- 
idly than in this country. From its first 
enunciation by Philip Embury until now, its 
advance — in spite of fierce opposition, un- 
principled misrepresentation, and bitter per- 



EISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 173 



secution — has been firm^ rapid^ wonderful. 
You know, perhaps, that attempts are being 
made to prove that Methodism has reached 
its climax, and is now dying out." I do 
not suppose that those who are engaged in 
this hopeless task really believe their own 
assertions. They cannot, certainly, if they 
understand whereof they write. This, they 
are not careful to do. It does not suit their 
purpose to deal in well authenticated and 
fairly presented facts. Their aim is not to 
tell the truth, but to retard the progress of 
Methodism, which they most religiously hate. 
Their tactics are those of politicians. By 
daring and reckless assertions, which they 
know the mass of their readers will not be 
at the pains to investigate, they endeavor to 
create an impression that proofs of prema- 
ture decay are already manifest in our body. 
These assertions are sustained by a specious 
arrangement of statistics, w^hich, being echoed 
and re-echoed by their partizans, over the 
country, are expected to work injury to us 
wherever they are repeated. 



174 RISE A^J) GRO^YTH OF METHODISM. 

Against these statements, I wish to put 
jou on your guard. They are false, utterly, 
absolutely false. Methodism is not declin- 
ing. Its numbers were never so great as 
now. Its ratio to the whole population was 
never so large as at present. Those who 
seek to produce a show of proof to the con- 
trary, do so by selecting the years 1842 and 
1843 as the starting points of their calcula- 
tion — the only years in our history from 
which any appearance of numerical declen- 
sion can be made out. I protest against this 
arbitrary selection of a starting point, be- 
cause it contains the maximum numbers of a 
decade, just as I would protest against a 
friend of Methodism, if he were to select a 
year in which our numbers had reached the 
minhniim of any given period as the starting 
point of his calculations. The fair method 
of computing the numerical progress of any 
community, society, or church, is, to compare 
its numbers through a long space of time, 
and through equal and specific periods. This 



RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 17S 



I propose to do. Not that I am anxious 
about our numbers ; for our church might be 
standing still numerically through several 
years, and not be dying out." She might 
be increasing in her hold on society, in in- 
ward culture, in inborn strength, and in fit-<8 
ness for a renewal of her aggressive efforts, 
and the extension of her domains. But I 
wish to state the truth, and to give you the 
means of rebutting the false calculations of 
our adversaries. 

The tables given below cover over half a 
century. The numbers for each decade, are 
for the year immediately following that on 
which each national census was taken. 
They show that Methodism, which up to 
1765 had not a single representative in the 
country, which was not ecclesiastically organ- 

^ Increase of the M. E. Church, by dtcadts.froni 1791 to "854. 



In 1791, Memb M. E. Ch.. 63,269, 
1801, " " 72,874, 

1811, " " 184,567, 

1821, " 281,146, 

1831 " " 513,114. 

1841, " " 859,81]; 

1851, (North & South,) 1.251,198, 
1854, " 1,386,661, 



An increase in in ytars of 
9,605, or 15^ per ct. 
111,693, or 153i " 
96,579^ or 52^ " 
231,96?; or 82^ " 
34--,697, or 67^ " 
391,387, or 45^ " 
135,463 for 3 years. 



V 



176 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 

ized until 1784, now has more than one mil 
lion three hundred thousand communica?its ; 
that during the last half century the ratio of 
our communicants to the entire population 
has increased from 07ie in sixty-two and a 
half to one in eighteen ajid a half or in- 
cluding the various branches of Methodism^ 

The next table shows how the per centage of onr increase 
compares with that of the entire population of the country. 

The population 
Methodism, 
The population, 
Methodism, 
The population, 
Methodism, 
The population, 
Methodism, 
The population, 
Methodism, 
The population, 
^Jethodism, 

Thus it appears that the per centage of our increase has been 
decidedly greater than that of the aggregate population of the 
country. 

A comparison of our numbers with the whole population, will 
show a rapidly increasmg ratio. Thus, beginning with 1791, 
seven years after the organization of our church, we have the 
following results : 

In 1791 one Methodist to about every 62^ of the whole pop. 

1801 " " 72i " 

-1811 " " 39^ " 

1821 " " 30 " 

1831 " " 25 " 

1841 " " 19f " 

1851 " " 18$ " 



increased from 1790 to 1800 


35.02 per ct. 




1791 to 1801 


15.20 " 


a 


1800 to 1810 


36.45 " 


u 


1801 to 1811 


153.50 » 


u 


1810 to 1820 


33.13 " 


(( 


1811 to 1821 


52.33 " 


u 


1820 to 1830 


33.49 " 


u 


1821 to 1831 


82.50 " 


ll 


1830 to 1840 


32.67 " 


u 


1831 to 1841 


67.50 " 


ll 


1840 to 1850 


35.87 " 


ii 


1841 to 1851 


45.50 " 



RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 177 

(not embraced in these tables, but numbering 
over one hundred and thirteen thousand com- 
municants,) our ratio has advanced from one 
in sixty-two and a half to 07ie in seventeen — 
a very gratifying increase on the population 
of the country. Is not this a wonderful in- 
crease ? Could it have been gained if the 
Lord had not been on the side of his people ? 

But how is it with New England? Has 
Methodism in the East kept pace with gen- 
eral Methodism? We should hardly expect 
it to do so, because it labors under peculiar 
difficulties, and against peculiar obstacles 
here. It has suffered, too, for the last fif- 
teen years, a very heavy annual loss from 
emigration. California, Oregon, and the 
Western States generally, contain thousands 
of persons, who were formerly members of 
our church in New England. Much of our in- 
crease in the West is the fruit of Eastern 
Methodism. But those emigrants are lost to 
us in New England. Their removal, in many 
instances, more than decimated whole church- 
es, and in some cases left societies too fee- 
12 



178 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 



ble for self-maintenance. It would not be 
strange, therefore, if our numbers did show a 
decrease in the Eastern Conferences. What 
are the facts ? The tables given below"^ will 



* The following tables contain the numbers in the New Eng- 
land Conferences, from 1796 to 1855, a period of 59 years, 
together with the average annual increase during each period. 
Those parts of New England embraced in the Troy and New 
York East Conferences are not included in the first tables. 



1796 
1820 
1830 
1840 
1860 
1855 



Conferences. 
1 

3 

6 



Members. 
2,519 
17,739 
35,227 
64,997 
65,640 
70,474 



Average annual increase, 634 
" 1,748 
u « 2,97T 

" " 64 



Let us next see what is our per centage of increase compared 



with the population 


of New England, 


through 


a period of fifty- 


four years. 










In N. E. the pop. increased from 


1800 


to 1810 


19.34 per ct. 


Methodism 




u 


(( 


92 " 


New England 




1810 


to 1820 


12.77 " 


Methodism 


u 


It 


It 


58 " 


New England 


u 


1820 


to 1830 


17.77 " 


Methodism 


u 


It 


ti 


98.50 " 


New England 


(( 


1830 


to 1840 


14.33 " 


Methodism 


(C 


(( 


(( 


85 « 


New England 


u 


1840 


to 1850 


22.07 


Methodism 


u 




(( 


.99 " 


Methodism 


n. 


1850 


to 1855 


7.36 " 



The next table shows the ratio of our increase in New Eng- 
land, compared with that of the population. 

Methodist in every 211 of the pop. of N. E. 
^ 131 

94 " 

56 « 

34 " . 

« 41 « 

" 38 " 



In 1800 there was 

1810 " - 

1820 " 

1830 ' 

1840 " 

1850 " 

1855 " 



RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 179 

show you that our rate of increase in New 
England, was highest between 1820 and 1840, 
and lowest between 1840 and 1850. But 
during no decade has Methodism ceased to 
advance! The ratio of our progress fell 
immensely between 1840 and 1850. But 
were there not various causes tending to that 
result? 1. There was the great drain by 
emigration spoken of above. 2. The divis- 
ion of the church occurred in that decade, 
and the discussion growing out of it was not 
without its result on the spirituality and ac- 
tivity of our people, even in New England. 
3. The agitation and the consequent losses 
by secession growing out of the organization 
of the " Wesleyan Church/' belong to the 
same period. 4. The Millerite excitement, 
with the subsequent spiritual deadness which 
overspread the churches generally, occurred 
in the same decade. 5. The fluctuations 
which were experienced in various branches 
of manufacture throughout New England must 
also be taken into account. Our people be- 



180 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 

ing largely composed of mechanics and per- 
sons dependent on their labor, are materially 
affected in their location, and frequently 
driven to emigrate to other parts of the 
country, by every adverse change which oc- 
curs in manufacturing towns. 6. Our people 
have been largely engaged in erecting and 
rebuilding church edifices, and otherwise 
strengthening and consolidating themselves 
in all parts of the Eastern States, and were 
never in so good a position, socially and eco- 
nomically, as now. 

Thus it appears that there are causes suffi- 
cient to account for that retardation in our 
rate of progress, which marks the decade pre- 
ceding 1850, without resorting to the suppo- 
sition that our vitality is declining. Many 
of the evil influences of that decade have 
passed away. It is true, emigration still 
drains our societies; but, notwithstanding 
this, our rate of progress has greatly im- 
proved since 1850. Should it be maintained 
to the close of the current decade, we shall 



RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 181 

have in 186); a membersliip in New England 
of 80;220. As it iS; our tables show, 1. That 
in fifty-eight years we have increased from 
2,519 members to 70,474. 2. That there has 
been no decade in which we have failed to 
make some advance. 3. That our^er ceyit- 
age of increase has largely exceeded the per 
centage of increase in the population, during 
every decade, with a single exception — i e., 
1840-50. 4. That fifty-five years ago there 
was one Methodist in New England to every 
two hundred and eleven of the population. 
Last year, there was one to every thirty- 
eight ! or, adding the more than 20,000 mem- 
bers in the New England States which belong 
to the New York East and Troy Confer- 
ences, there was in 1855 one Methodist to 
every twenty-nine of the population in New 
England. 

In the following note I have given the statis- 
tics of New England Methodism in compari- 
son with those of the Baptists and Congrega- 
ti Dualists, (Orthodox,) on the same ground. 



182 EISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 



You will learn from them, what I know will 
gratify you, — that Methodism in New Eng- 
land is second in numbers and first in pro- 
gress ! The Baptists are third in numbers 
and second in progress. The Congregation- 
alists are first in numbers and third in pro- 
gress."^ 



* The first table shows the increase of the Congregational 
(Orthodox) Churches in New England, from 1841 to 1865, a pe- 
riod oi fourteen years. 

Assoc'ns. 1841. 1855. Increase in 14 years. 

Conn., 35,688 88,083 2,895 or 6.71 per cent. 

Mass., 57,563 67,195 9,632 or 16.78 " 

N. Hamp., 17,581 20,022 2,441 or 13.88 « 

K. Island, 2,577 2,717 140 or 5.43 " 

Maine, 17,338 16,937 {dec.) 401 or 2.31 " {loss.) 

Vermont, 22,666 17,705 {dec.) 4,961 or 21.88 " {loss.) 

Totals, 153,413 162,659 9,246 or 6.02 per cent. 

The following table gives the increase of the Baptists in 

New England from 1840 to 1854, a period of fourteen years. 

Assocn's. 1840. 1854. Increase in 14 years. 

Cofm., 11,725 16,907 5,182 or 44.10 per cent. 

Maine, 20,490 19,355 {dec.) 1,135 or 5.53 " {loss.) 

Mass., 26,311 31,854 5,543 or 21.06 " 

N. Hamp., 9,557 8,229 {dec.) 1,328 or 13.89 " {hss.) 

R. Island, 5,962 7,357 1,395 or 23.39 *' 

Vermont, 11,101 7,851 {dec.) 3,250 or 29.27 " {loss.) 



Totals^ 85,146 91,553 6,407 or 7.52 per cent. 

The next table gives the progress of our own church, in New 
England, from 1841 to 1855, a period oi fourteen years, omitting 
the 20 to 23,000 members belonging to the New York, New 
Yoik East, and Troy Conferences. 



BISE AND GEOWTH OF METHODISM. 183 



This result affords matter of gratitude to 
Almighty God. That in some sixty years we 
should have gained a membership considera- 
bly more than half as large as the Congrega- 
tionalistSj who for more than a century had 
almost undisputed possession of the territory, 

ConTs. 1841. 1855. Increese in 14 years. 

N. E., 12,082 16,152 4,070 or 32.85 per ct. 

N. H., 19,485 I '^I'lll' I 19,006 {dec,} 429 or 2.20 " {loss.) 

Me., 22,844 | ^I'lfs \ ^^'^"^^ ^^^^'^ ^'^''^ ^^'^^ " ^^^'^ 
Prov., 10,664 * ' ' jg^Q^g 4^3g2 qj. 41,09 



Totals, 65,025 70,474 6,449 or 8.37 per ct. 

To make the results of these tables more apparent, I will reca- 
pitulate them as follows : — 

Cong's from 1841 to 1855, 14 yrs, gained 9,246 or 6.02 per cent 
Bapt's " 1840 to 1854, 14 " 6,407 or 7.52 " 

Meth's " 1841 to 1855, 14 " 5,449 or 8.37 " 

The succeeding table gives the ratio of increase in each de- 
nomination since 1840, compared with the population of the New 
England States. 

In 1841 there was one Congregationalist in every 14 of the pop. 
1855 " " " ' 16 ^' 

1840 " Baptist " 26 " 
1855 " " " 29 " 

1841 " Methodist " 34 " 
1855 " " " 38 " 

Including the 22,000 members — our estimated numbers in 
those parts of Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, and Ver- 
mont, embraced in the New York, New York East, and Troy 
Conferences — we get the following ratios for Methodism : — 

In 1-841, one Methodist in every 25 of the population. 
1855, one Methodist in cver^- 29 of the population. 



184 RISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 

and who, when we came here, enjoyed the 
prestige of wealth, social status, and culture, 
is an astonishing fact, demanding our warm- 
est thankfulness, and encouraging our most 
sanguine hopes. Our advance in the race of 
progress beyond our Baptist brethren is 
equally gratifying. They started a century 
and a half before we entered New England. 
They had a membership of some 20,000 mem- 
bers when Jesse Lee appeared in the arena. 
Since then they have increased nearly five 
fold, yet Methodism has outstripped them, 
both in numbers and rate of progress. 

With these illustrations of the rapid 
growth of our church, you cannot fail to be 
impressed with the idea that Methodism has 
been signally favored of God. Remember, it 
is not a church which either tolerates form- 
ality, or permits immoralities in its members ; 
but a church teaching men to deny themselves, 
to forsake all sin, to attain personal holiness, 
and enforcing this teaching with a stricter 
discipline than any other branch of the 



EISE AND GROWTH OF METHODISM. 185 

church. HoW; then, can you account for its 
growth except on the admission that God is 
in it; that Jesus smiles upon it; that the 
Spirit pours his constant benediction upon it ? 
Believing this, you need not hesitate to enter 
its fellowship, for in Methodism, as in 
Judah, God is known; his name is great in 
Israel. In Salem, also, is his tabernacle, and 
his dwelling-place in Zion." 



CHAPTER VIII. 




SPIRITUAL RESULTS OP METHODISM. 

^0 understand the spiritual re- 
sults of Methodism, my dear 
reader, you must first glance 
at the religious condition of 
England and America, at the epoch 
of its rise. 
What was the spiritual state of 
England prior to the appearance of the Wes- 
leyan evangelists ? I do not exaggerate 
when I say that it was in the lowest possible 
condition of religious torpor and indifference. 
The shadow of an almost starless night 
spread over the land. The clergy of the Es- 
tablished Church were mostly unconverted 
men, teachers of a Pelagian theology, and 
sadly lacking in that high purity of life which 
is so essential to ministerial influence. The 



SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 187 

Presbyterian clergy were mostly floating 
in the putrid sea of a self-indulgent Antinomi- 
anism, or gliding in luxuriant ease down the 
smooth waters of a self-complacent Socinian- 
ism. The dissenting clergy, generally were 
lethargic, formal, dead. Doddridge, Watts, 
and a few others, were bright exceptions ; but 
their influence was limited to narrow circles ; 
their light scarcely relieved the general gloom. 

As it was with the clergy, so it was with 
their flocks. The churches seemed under the 
power of a Lethean draught. They mostly 
slept, as if oblivious of the calls of duty, the 
warnings of retribution, and the woes of 
humanity. 

As a consequence, irreligion stalked over 
the land with a haughty, philosophic skepti- 
cism at her right hand ; a coarse, blustering 
infidelity at her left; and a host of blear-eyed 
immoralities in her train. The nobles, the 
statesmen, the literary men of England, did 
not scruple to deride evangelical religion 
with their lips, and to insult its moralities in 



188 SPIEITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 

their practice. There was no tliinking at 
that time/' says Isaac Taylor^ " which was 
Bot atheistical in its tone and tendency." 
The middle classes were immersed in the sea 
of avarice ; the lower orders were abandoned 
to the grossest vices. The moral and reli- 
gious defection which obtained," says Dr. 
Morrison, was extraordinary and almost 
universal^ " The higher ranks of society/' 
says Dr. Corbett, "viewed the ordinances 
of religion with indifference, and the poorer 
classes had sunk into the grossest vices." In 
Calvinistic Scotland, the case was no better. 
Rev. James Robie, of Kilsyth, in 1740, said: 
"For some years past there hath been a sen- 
sible decay as to the life and power of godli- 
ness. Iniquity abounded, and the love of 
many waxed cold. Our defection from the 
Lord, and backsliding, increased fast to a 
dreadful apostacy. While the government, 
worship and doctrine, established in this 
church were retained in profession, there 
hath been an universal corruption of 



SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METH0DIS3I. 189 



LiFE^ reacMiig even unto the sons and daugh- 
ters of God." 

Was the spiritual condition of America 
any better when Whitefield; glo^ring with 
Methodistic life, visited its coasts ; and when, 
subsequently; Philip Embury raised the ban- 
ner of Methodism in New York ? Let Mr. 
Tracy, the historian of the Great Awaken- 
ing/' answer. Referring to the period of 
Whitefield's labors, he says : 

The doctrine of the ^ new birth ' as an as- 
certainable change, was not generally pj^eva- 
lent in any communion when the reTival com- 
menced." 

^' The difference between the church and 
the world was vanishing away. Church dis- 
cipline was neglected, and the growing lax- 
ness of morals loas invadiiig the churches. 
And yet never, perhaps, had the expectation 
of reaching heaven at last, been more gener- 
al, or more confident. Occasional revivals 
had interrupted this downward progress, and 
preaching of sound doctrinehd^d retarded 



190 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OP METHODISM. 

it in many places, especially in Northampton ; 
but even there it had gone ouj and the hold 
of truth on the consciences of men was sadly 
diminished. The young were abandoning 
themselves to frivolity, and amusements of 
dangerous tendency, and party spirit was pro- 
ducing its natural fruit of evil on the old.'^ 

Again he says (in 1740) : A large majori- 
ty in the Presbyterian church, and many, if 
not most, in Neio England, held that the 
ministrations of unconverted men if neither 
heretical in doctrine nor scandalous for im- 
morality, were valid, and their labors useful." 

Of the churches in Rhode Island, in 1740, 
Whitefield, as quoted by Tracy, says : All, 
I fear, place the kingdom of God too much in 
meats and drinks, and have an ill name 
abroad for running of goods." 

Again he says, while in Boston, "I am 
verily persuaded the generality of preachers 
talk of an unknown and unfelt dhrist ; and 
the reason why congregations have been so 
dead, is because they have had dead men 



SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 191 



PREACHING TO THEM." Again, " Boston ^ ^ 
has the form kept up very well; but has lost 
much of the power of religion, I have not 
heard of any remarkable stir in it for these 
many years." 

In 1743; Rev. Messrs. Messenger and Ha- 
veU; of iSTatick; say : " For a long time past 
the power of godliness has beefi evident but 
in comparatively feiv instances.^^ 

Rev. John Porter, in 1743, says of Bridge- 
water, Massachusetts, ^^Experimental religion 
and the power of godliness seemed to have 
taken their flight from Bridgewater. The 
greater part of the people who thought of re- 
ligion at all, rested in various duties short 
of a saving closure with Christ." 

Rev. N. Leonard, of Plymouth, Mass., writ- 
ing in 1744, says: It pleased God to cast 
my lot in the first church and town in the 
country, twenty years ago. Religion was 
then (i. e. in 1724) under a great decay ; most 
people seemed to be taken up principally 
about the world and the lusts of this life, 



192 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OP METHODISM. 



though there appeared some serious Chris- 
tians among us who bewailed the growth of 
impiety, profaneness. Sabbath breaking, gam- 
ing, tavern-haunting, intemperance, and other 
evils, which threatened to bear down all that 
is good and sacred before them. We were 
sensible of an awful degeneracy, Ini- 
quity prevailed, and we were in danger of 
losing the very form of godliness." 

Eev. Samuel Davies. of Virginia, writes in 
1751 : " Religion has been, and in most parts 
of the colony still is, in a very low state. 
* ^ Family religion is a rarity. Vices 
of various kinds are triumphant, and even a 
form of godliness is not common." 

Rev. Jonathan Dickenson, of Elizabeth- 
town, New Jersey, says : Religion was in a 
rery low state, professors generally dead and 
lifeless, and the body of our people careless, 
carnal and secure. There was but little of 
the power of godliness appearing among us 
until some time in August, 1739, when there 
was a remarkable revival at Newark." 



SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 193 



Of the Presbyterians throughout the land, 
in 1740^ Mr. Tracy says they admitted "to 
the full communion of the churchy persons 
who gave no evidence of regeneration. The 
doctrine of the new birth ceased to be re- 
garded in the administration of the ordi- 
nances ; as a natural consequence, it 
practically slipped from the minds both of 
preachers and hearers.^^ 

Eev. S. Blair, of New Londonderry, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1744, says: "People were very 
generally, through the land, careless at 
heart, and stupidly indifferent about the great 
concerns of eternity. There was very little 
appearance of any hearty engagedness in re- 
ligion. ^ It was sad to see with what a 
careless behavior the public ordinances were 
attended." 

The eloquence and piety of Whitefield 
kindled a bright light in this hour of gloom; 
but being fed with Calvinistic theology only, 
it soon lost its brilliancy. The bones of that 
apostolic man were scarcely deposited in 
13 



194 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 

their sepulchre at Newburyport, before anoth- 
er fearful apostacy spread the pall of death 
over the churches of America."^ So that at 
the advent of American Methodism, the mor- 
al and spiritual condition of this country was 
scarcely better than that of the Fatherland 
when Wesley arose. 

Thus, in both lands, Methodism rose like a 
bright; particular star, in an hour of deep 
and fearful gloom. What did it accomplish? 
In general terms, it may be replied that it 
was the instrument, in both countries, of a 

* " With all the accession of strength," says Mr. Tracy, " that 
religion received from the revival, it did hut just stand the, shocTc^ 
( of the revolution^) and for a long time, many of the pious feared 
that everything holy would be swept away !! Strengthened by so 
many tens of thonsands of converts, and by the deep sense of 
the importance of religion produced in other tens of thousands, 
both in and out of the churches, religion survived, in time ral- 
lied and advanced, and is marching on to victory." (Great 
Awakening, p. 421. J 

The Puritan Recorder, of August 31, 1854, describing the stato 
of religion at the epoch of the revolution, confirms Mr. Tracy. 
It says : " It is well known how disastrous to religion were the 
influences attending that war, and what loide sjwead religious ih^ 
clension followed.''^ 



SPmiTUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 195 



revival of spiritual religion^ which for depth, 
intensity, extent, permanency, duration, and 
humanitarian influences, has no parallel in the 
history of the Christian Church since the 
apostolic age."^ Its results are not to be es- 
timated by the numerical strength of the 
Methodistic body. Wonderful as is the crea- 
tion of such a body of spiritual people in so 
brief a period, its results outside of its own 
membership are yet more vast and astonish- 
ing. Did it not break up the formalism of 
existing churches, and impregnate tliem anew 
with that divine life which not only saved 
them from extinction, but which also started 
them on a career of progress that continues 
to the present hour ? Did it not stop the 
march of infidelity, and thereby save England 
from the revolutionary vortex which swal- 

* Methodism gained more members to its own communion in 
its first century, tlian the apostolic church during its first cen- 
tuiy. At the end of the Jirst century of the Christian Era, there 
were 500,000 Christians; at the end of its first century, Metho- 
dism had 1,423,000 communicants — a number nearly three 
times greater. 



196 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 

lowed so much of the blood of France ? Did 
it not awaken that spirit of evangelical ac- 
tivity; which led to the conception and inau- 
guration of the missionary and other ideaS; 
now embodied in our various benevolent 
organizations ? Did it not do much toward 
determining the religious condition of these 
United States ? I do not claim that it did 
all these things directly ] but I do claim that 
they have all grown out of the life to which 
it gave birth. They cannot be traced to any 
other cause. We can find their germ no- 
where else but in the Methodistic revival: 
but for which one trembles to think what 
fearful moral desolation would have over- 
spread the earth. That you may see how 
this view is supported by large minded men 
of other denominations; I will insert a few 
extracts from various sources below."^ 

* Dr. Moreison says: " The churcli of England received a 
miglity and hallowed impulse from the organization of Metho 
dism. ^ ^ =^ In referring to the influence of Methodism upon 
Dissenty it will be frankly conceded, by all competent judges of 
passing events, that it has told with prodigious effect upon itB 



SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 197 



Nor has the spiritual life of Methodism 
yet begun to show symptoms of decay. Hav- 
ing lifted other sects up towards its own 

internal organization, and upon all its movements for the good 
of mankind. ^ ^ Methodism did much to bring on the great 
missionary crisis of the church. ^ =^ It was the glory of Metho- 
dism that it siezed with a giant grasp this great principle of the 
apostolic ministry." — Dr. Morrison'' s Fathers and Founders of 
the London Missionary Society. 

Rev. Richard Cecil says: " They (the Methodists) have la- 
bored and not fainted in planting the gospel amongst the poor, 
and that with the most surprising success, even in the most dark 
and profligate places. ^ * Multitudes of genuine Christians 
could attest that under whatever denomination they now pro- 
ceed, they owe their first serious impressions to the labors of 
these men." — Cecil's Memoirs of Cadogan. 

Dr. Chalmers says : " Methodism is Christianity in earnest." 

Robert Hall says : Whitefield and Wesley " will be hailed 
by posterity as the Second Reformers of England.'''' 

Sir Peter Laurie, a British magistrate, in a speech, said 
" I would much rather see a Methodist chapel than a station 
house. I would that all the country might embrace your senti- 
ments and emulate your moral character; for then, indeed, no 
police would be heard of." 

Similar testimonies abound with respect to American Metho 
dism. I will quote a few. 

The following paragraph is from the pen of Dr. Baird, a gen- 
tleman whose extensive travel, and close and long continued 
observation on the various religious systems of the country, ea- 



198 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OP METHODISM. 



standard; its superior vitality may not be so 
apparent as when they were shrouded in 
formality; yet it is as real and robust as 

title Ms opinion to the very highest respect. He says: "No 
American Christian, who takes a comprehensive view of the 
progress of religion in his country, and considers how wonder 
fully the means and instrumentalities employed are adapted to 
the extent and wants of that community, can hesitate for a mo- 
ment to bless God for having, in his mercy, provided them all. 
Nor will he fail to recognize, in the Methodist economy, as well as 
in the zeal, the devoted piety, and the efficiency of its ministry, 
owe of the most powerful dements in the religious prosperity of the 
United States^ as well as one of the firmest pillars of their civil 
and political institutions." — Religion in America, p. 249. 

Rev, Dr. Tyng, in an address in London, before the Wes- 
ieyan Missionary Society, in 1842, said: "I come from a land 
where we might as well forget the proud oaks that tower in our 
forests, the glorious capitol we have erected in the centre of our 
hills, or the principles of truth and liberty which we are endeav- 
oring to disseminate, as forget the influence of Wesleyan Metho- 
dism, and the benefits we have received thereby. * * The Wes- 
leyan body in our country is what the Wesleyan body is 
throughout the world. ^ ^ Standing, I was going to say, man- 
fully, — but I check the spirit, and say humbly, — at the feet of 
Jesus, laboring for him, and accounting it its highest honor if it 
may but bear the cross, while he, in all his glory, should be per- 
mitted to wear the crown.*' 

The next extract is from a writer in the Presbyterian Chris^ 
Uan Herald^ quoted in Clark's Memoir of Bishop Hedding: "No 



SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 199 

ever. A recent writer in the North British 
Review, whose objections to some features 
of the Wesleyan system prove him to be not 
of it, says : " We believe that the Wesleyan 
body contains by far the largest per centage 
of true religion and moral life &f any sect 
in Englandy And you know, my dear con- 
vert, that; in this country, there is no room 
to doubt that the spiritual activity of Metho- 
dism is vastly greater and less vacillating 
than that of any other sect. A Congrega- 
tional clergyman of Massachusetts, naively 
confessed this fact recently in a conversation 
with a Methodist preacher. He said : We 
(the Congregationalists) "always look to 
the Methodists to lead in a revival. I ad- 



pioneer gets beyond the reach of Methodist itinerants. Though 
he pass the Rocky Mountains, and pursue his game to the Pa- 
cific, he soon finds the self-denying, unconquerable, unescape- 
able Methodist minister at his side, summoning him to the camp- 
meeting, and winning his soul to Christ! Thousands upon 
thousands of pioneers, scattered like sheep and almost lost from 
the world, in those far-off wilds of the West,, have blessed God 
for raising up Wesley and the Methodists J'" 



200 SPIEITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 



vised the pastor of a Congregational church 
in a town where the church was large and 
wealthy, but had not enjoyed a revival within 
the memory of its oldest member, to secure, 
if he could; the organization of a Methodist 
church there, because such a church would 
certainly exert a most beneficial influence on 
the general spiritual interests of the town; 
and particularly on the spiritual life and vig- 
or of that Cong^reo^ational church. If everv 
preacher of Calvinistic theology was as frank 
as this good brother, such confessions would 
be general. Thank God, Methodism re- 
tains the life God gave it when he con- 
verted the Wesleys ; and if the culture of 
your spiritual life is the great object you 
seek in forming a church relation, you will 
regard it as the first of privileges to be 
permitted to enter its fellowship. 

But the enemies of our church seek to 
divert attention from these wonderful and 
glorious facts, by pretending that in build- 
ing up itself, Methodism inflicts injury on 



SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 201 

society. It brings, they assert, vast num- 
bers of persons under the influence of re- 
ligious excitement; and induces them to 
make spurious professions of conversion. 
One unscrupulous writer has said that of the 
number professing conversion at Methodist 
meetings, ^^nine-tenths of the whole are 
found to be spurious, after a longer or 
shorter trial ! " Strange assertion ! It car- 
ries its own contradiction on its brazen 
brow. It is even absurdly false. To be 
true, no less than twelve millions and a 
half of persons, or two-thirds of the adult 
population of the country, must have pro- 
fessed conversion in Methodist churches, for 
they contain about a million and a quarter of 
communicants within their pale ! A state- 
ment resulting in a consequence so mani- 
festly impossible cannot be true. It is un- 
worthy the serious attention of a sane man."^ 

* For a full and conclusive reply to the pretended facts by 
which this silly assertion of Parsons Cooke was supported, see 
my pamphlet entitled " A Defence of Methodism," &c. 



202 SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF METHODISM. 

But I need not lead you through the fog 
with which its enemies seek to obscure tho 
glory of Methodism. You will not be de- 
ceived nor turned aside from it; I feel as- 
sured. You cannot fail to see that God is 
with it. His grace is its garment. His arm 
its power. His strength its protection. His 
love the pledge of its perpetuity. His ap- 
proval the diadem of beauty which crowns its 
brow. Go, then, beloved; go, kneel at its 
altar ; enter its fellowship ; drink deep of its 
spirit ; emulate the zeal and purity of its mas- 
ter spirits ; and thereby learn the truth of the 
dying words of its great founder — the best 
of all isj God is with us. 



CHAPTER IX. 




METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

^ID you^my reader, ever visit the 
Hartz Mountain; in Germany? 
If SO; you heard at least of the 
celebrated spectre which haunts 
its summit. Perhaps you saw it; — 
colossal figure crowning the summit 
the BrockeU; bending and moving, 
as if in imitation of your own gestures. If 
you stretched out your arms, the spectre did 
the same. If you bowed; the spectre re- 
turned the compliment ; and you were thrilled 
with astonishment at the phenomenon. Yet 
you were not alarmed. Your scientific 
knowledge taught you that the gigantic image 
before you was merely the shadow of your- 
self; projected on dense vapors or fleecy 
cloudS; which had the power to reflect light 
freely. Yet such was the impression it made 
14 



204 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

upon your mind, that you were not surprised 
at the marvellous stories to which it had giv- 
en rise among the peasantry of the adjacent 
region. You could readily understand how 
superstitious ignorance could invest that 
spectre with the terror with which the imagi- 
nation delights to clothe supernatural beings. 

Now it is a curious fact that the adversa- 
ries of Methodism, whenever they turn their 
eyes toward its government, affect to see a 
spectre resting upon its dome. They take 
strange delight in harping upon what they 
are pleased to call its despotism. Mr. 
Graves, whose malice floats like scum upon 
every page of his book, calls its government 
a " naked clerical despotism.'^ Mr. Cooke, 
whose views of our system are founded on 
the most superficial knowledge of its princi- 
ples, says, the theory of our church assumes 
that God has given all church power to one 
or more bishops, to reign absolute over the 
whole body of associated Christians in a na- 
tion a " Others take up the same cry, and 



METHODIST CHURCH GOTEEX^XT. 205 

thus, from Maine to California, our adversa- 
ries assail ns "vrith this charge of despotism 
for their battle-cry. We think it possible 
some of them may be ignorant enough of 
Methodism to believe their own assertions. 
But with the more intelligent of our foeSj 
this cry is raised for the purpose of raising 
the national prejudice" against a church whose 
rapid growth and immense resources they 
both fear and envy. The numerical superi- 
ority of Methodism, as shown by the facts of 
the last censuS; has disturbed them exceed- 
ingly. Knowing that the republican idea is 
justly popular, and the despotic idea justly 
hateful with the American public, they seek 
to persuade the people that Methodism is 
anti-republican and despotic in its principles, 
spirit, and practice. Could they succeed, 
they would, doubtless, inflict a deadly wound 
upon it. They would assuredly retard its 
progress. 

But the charge is false. Methodism is not 
a despotism, any more than the spectre of 



206 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 



the Brocken is a reality. Like that figure, 
the charge is proven to be a shadow — the 
reflection of the thoughts of those who make 
it — having no substantial existence. True, its 
ecclesiastical forms were not cast in a repub- 
lican mould. The democratic idea is not 
very legibly written in the letter of its disci- 
pline. A superficial observer, gazing on 
some of its arrangements, without taking into 
account the numerous checks which are every- 
where thrown around those to whom it con- 
veys power, might easily misconceive its prin- 
ciples, and misjudge its spirit and practical 
operations. While, to those who write in the 
venomous spirit of the writers referred to 
above, nothing is easier than, by exaggerating 
some features of the system and suppressing 
others, to make out the plausible semblance 
of a strong case. 

But there is a strong, and as we think, un- 
answerable a priori argument against this 
charge, in the fact that those who are in the 
M. B. Church are utterly unconscious of the 



METHODIST CHURCH GOYEEXMEST. 207 



pressure of this alleged despotism. Xo 
Methodist feels oppressed by it. Methodist 
ministers and laymen maintain as much self- 
respect, feel as free in spirit, and are as un- 
constrained in their action, as the ministry 
and laity of the most ultra Congregationalist 
church in the land. Xo despotic arm terrifies 
them. Xo irresponsible authority oppresses 
them. Xo arbitrary inflictions gall them. 
How is this ? HoTv can this consciousness 
of freedom exist and flourish unchecked; if 
Methodism is such a system of despotism as 
its enemies declare it to be ? It will not do 
to say that our people are not sufficiently in- 
telligent to distinguish between liberty and 
freedom; for we hesitate not to assert that 
the average culture of our people is equal to 
that of any other large denomination in the 
land. How is it, then ? There is but one 
answer. The despotism does not exist; save 
in the disturbed imaginations of our enemies. 

What is despotism? It is absolute au- 
thority, irresponsible to constitutions; laws, 



208 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

or tribunals. But Methodism knows no such 
authority as this. Everyman — minister or 
layman — upon whom it confers power^ is 
controlled by ruleS; and held responsible to 
proper tribunals for the right exercise of his 
authority. Every officer's duties, from a class 
leader to a bishop, are specifically defined ; 
and the greater the power bestowed, the 
more strict is the responsibility which is ex- 
acted. Hence, while a member or preacher 
can be expelled for specific violations of the 
Discipline only, a bishop is liable to expul- 
sion for improper conduct. Should a bishop 
foolishly undertake to enact the part of a 
tyrant, should he wantonly abuse his appoint- 
ing power to any appreciable extent, the 
General Conference has the power, as it cer- 
tainly would have the motive and inclination, 
to expel him. While such restraints upon its 
authorities as these exist, Methodism cannot 
be considered a despotism. The grand fun- 
damental element of despotism — absolute, 
irresponsible authority — is not found in the 
system. 



METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 209 



Again I ask, what is despotism ? It is ir- 
responsible autlioritv reposing upon force. 
The appeal of the despot is not to the con- 
sent of the governed, but to force. His au- 
thority is built; not on the enlightened affec- 
tion of his subjects, but on the bayonets of 
his warriors. His arguments are chains, 
prisons, scaffolds. To talk about a despot- 
ism without force, is to drivel, not reason. 
There can be no despotism where there is no 
power to coerce obedience. 

Still our enemies say Methodism is a "na- 
ked clerical despotism, that its " bishops 
reign absolute over the whole body." Where 
then is its coercive poiver 7 Where its means 
of enforcing- obedience? It has none, abso- 
Intely none. It reposes not on force, but on 
the opinions and choice of its members. 
This is its corner-stone. Eobbed of this, it 
would dissolve like the "' fabric of a vision." 
So entirely does it rely on the affectionate 
and voluntary support of the people, that it 
formally absolves them from legal obligation 
14 



210 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

to render it that pecuniary aid which is essen- 
tial to its operations. If the allo\yances 
needful for the support of its ministry are 
not forthcoming; " the church/^ says the Dis- 
cipline, p. 181; " shall not be accountable for 
the deficiency, as in a case of debt.'^ Did the 
world ever hear of a despotism throwing it- 
self so completely on the affections and choice 
of its subjects ? Never. How then can Metho- 
dism be despotism ? 

But; it may be alleged, Methodism gives 
the power of excommunicating the laity to 
the clergy, and this ghostly power is equivo- 
cal to coercion in its influence over the mem- 
bership. Such an allegation as this is sheer 
nonsense. To an enlightened people, excom- 
munication ivitlioiit just cause, has no terror, 
because it cannot affect the spiritual rela- 
tions of the sufferer. Such excommunication 
in this country is at most but an annoyance, 
and is not even dreamed of among Metho- 
dists as a motive to hold them to its commu- 
nion. 



METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 211 



But even this power is not lodged abso- 
lutely in the ministry of the M. E. Church. 
Before excommunication can take place, a 
layman must be formally tried and condemned 
by a committee of laymen. He can appeal 
from a wrong verdict to a Quarterly Confer- 
ence, composed chiefly of laymen. He can 
finally procure the arrest of his pastor for 
mal-administratioD; at the bar of the Annual 
Conference. Hence, if there was terror in 
an unjust excommunication, our laity are 
pretty effectually guarded against it. The 
ministry cannot use the power of excommuni- 
cation as a means of coercing the submission 
of the people. To what, then, does all the 
power actually lodged in the hands of the 
bishops and ministers of the M. E. Church 
amount? Eestrained on every side by checks 
and accountability, it cannot be arbitrarily 
exercised without bringing censure or deposi- 
tion upon him who is weak or wicked enough 
to abuse it. Reposing upon the affeciions 
and consent of the people, its abuse would 



212 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

be its destruction. How then can Methodism 
be a despotism, when it is manifestly lacking 
in the fundamental elements of a despotic 
power ? 

A third element of despotism is centraliza- 
Hon. A despotism seeks to "concentrate 
the whole administration of the government 
in its own hands." It abhors the municipal 
idea. It frowns upon all local authority 
which is not responsible to itself, and de- 
pendent upon its will. For example, free 
municipalities are unknown in the confessedly 
despotic government of Russia. Their ex- 
istence is little better than nominal, in des- 
potically governed France. They flourish 
only in such countries as enjoy a limited 
monarchy, like England, or republican insti- 
tutions, like the United States. But despot- 
ism eschews them. It loathes all local au- 
thority which is not dependent on itself. 
Centralization is its law, and wherever it 
exists all authority proceeds from it, is re- 
sponsible to it, and exists only by its permis- 
sion. 



METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 213 

But is Methodism a system of centraliza- 
Hon 1 Does it hold its members in bands 
of iron responsibility to a single central* 
power? Does any supreme authority re- 
strain the liberties of individual societies, 
and deprive local churches of their proper 
freedom ? If so, where is that central pow- 
er ? If, as our enemies say, Methodism is a 
despotism, let that overshadowing, all-con- 
trolling authority be named ? It cannot be 
done. 

If such a power exist at all, it must be 
found either in the Episcopacy or in the 
General Conference, To affirm it of an An- 
nual Conference, would be to talk nonsense, 
because an Annual Conference is geographi- 
cally limited in its jurisdiction. If it can be 
found anywhere, it must be in the Episco- 
pacy, or in the General Conference. I affirm 
that it is not in either. 

1. The Episcopacy is not such a power. 
As a body, the Episcopacy has no power at 
all. It is not recognized in Methodism in an 



214 METHODIST CHURCH GOYERNMENT. 

associate capacity."^ If our seven bishops 
were to meet in solemn conclave^ their de 
'cisions, opinions, or doings would pos*sess 
no more authority over the church than the 
decisions of any other seven preachers, of 
equal character, age, and talent, in the con- 
nection. Whatever power they possess be- 
longs to them individually J and not as a bench 
or conclave. 

The power of a Methodist bishop is great- 
ly overrated. Viewed through the spectacles 
of our adversaries, the Methodist bishop is a 
despot without a peer this side the Vatican. 
But when he is examined in the light of the 
Methodist Discipline, he becomes a simple 
preacher of the gospel, burdened with fearful 
responsibilities and onerous labors, but so 
fettered by restraints and accountability that 
he cannot enact the tyrant to any appreciable 
extent, without feeling the sharp axe of ec- 
clesiastical deposition on his Episcopal neck. 



* In the M. E. Chnrch South, I believe the bench of bishops, 
as snch, has certain powers. But they are clearly defined and 
limited by the Discipline of the Churclu 



METHODIST CHrECH GOYERNMENT. 215 



What are the powers of a Methodist 
bishop? 1. He has the power of ordination. 
2. He iS; ex officio, the moderator of the Gen- 
eral and Annual Conferences. 3. He decides 
all questions of law that may arise in an An- 
nual Conference. 4. He can confine an 
Annual Conference to its legitimate funo- 
tions. 5. He can change, receive, and sus- 
pend preachers during the interval of an 
Annual Conference. 6. He stations the 
preachers. 

Now mark the limitations of these powers. 
1. Has the bishop the power of ordination? 
Granted. But the Conferences only have the 
power to elect men to orders. Without their 
concurrence, therefore, a bishop cannot or- 
dain a single candidate. 2. Is the bishop, ex 
officio, moderator in the Conferences ? He 
is. But he has neither voice nor vote in the 
Conference itself. He can neither make a 
motion nor engage in debate. 3. Does he 
decide questions of law in an Annual Confer- 
ence ? He does ; but the application of his 



216 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

decisioD is with the Conference. His decis- 
ion, if offensive to a single preacher, may be 
carried by appeal to the General Conference. 
In the General Conference he has no right to 
decide any question, either of law or order, 
but is in all things subject to the decisions of 
that body. 4. Can he confine an Annual 
Conference to its legitimate functions ? He 
can. But those functions are specifically de- 
fined ; and if he invades the rights of a Con- 
ference, he is accountable at the ensuing 
General Conference. 5. Can he change, re- 
ceive and suspend preachers in the interval 
of a Conference ? He can. But he must be 
governed by the necessity of the case in his 
exercise of the first two powers; and he 
cannot suspend, only as Discipline may re- 
quire ; " that is, after due examination and 
conviction before a committee of preachers. 
6. Has he power to station preachers ? This, 
we confess, is a great power, but it involves 
such a fearful amount of responsibility to 
God, that its possessor must needs become a 



\ 



METHODIST CHUKCH GOVERNMENT. 217 

very bad and very reckless man; before be 
could think of abusing it. But a bishop is 
responsible for its use to the delegates of the 
very men over whom it is exercised ; and no 
bishop could abuse it to any serious degree 
without stirring up such a spirit of resist- 
ance as would result in great restrictions on 
the appointing power itself. The General 
Conference gave the stationing power to the 
bishops, and should they ever abuse it, it will 
assuredly take it from them. 

ThuS; on every side, the power of a bishop 
meets with limits which it dare not pass 
without self-destruction. Nor are these all 
the restraints which surround a bishop. He 
is dependent for the amount of his salary 
on the decisions of a committee of an 
Annual Conference. He is responsible for 
his private and official conduct to the Gen- 
eral Conference, which may expel him for 
improprieties which would only subject a 
preacher or layman to censure. He has no 
power to appoint men to special offices in the 



218 METHODIST CHURCH GOTEEXMEXT. 



cliurch, such as editorships^ secretaryships, 
and book agencies. No layman, no minister, 
no Conference, is judicially responsible to 
him. He cannot hold the preacher he ap- 
points to a station accountable to himself, 
but must leare him to the judgment of the 
brethren composing his Conference. 

Now I submit the question to you, dear 
convert, in all candor, can this Episcopacy, so 
limited, so restrained, so utterly deprived of 
legislative and judicial powers be such a cen- 
tralized power as is necessary to constitute 
a despotism ? Did any man ever dream of 
despotism existing under such conditions ? 
Nay. Is it not worse than absurd to say, as 
our Puritan adversary has recently said, 
Methodist bishops reign absolute over the 
whole body?" The fact is, the bishops do 
not reign at all. They serve. Their au- 
thority is defined, limited, hemmed in on 
every side. They are not despots, and they 
could not be if they would. 

We know it is urged by our enemies that 



METHODIST CHURCH GOYERNMENT. 219 

the bishops break down all these barriers, 
and hold the preachers and Conferences sub- 
servient to their will, through the influence 
they derive from their appointing power. If 
the bishop have " special ends of his own to 
carry/' says a bitter foe to our institutions, 
"his will is irresistible. If he wishes to de- 
pose a member, he could if he would, com- 
mand every vote." 

This is mere babble. It only proves how 
ignorant its writer is, both of Methodist 
bishops and Methodist preachers. Were he 
acquainted with them, he would know that 
the former are too high and noble minded to 
use their power for personal ends, and too 
shrewd not to perceive that to so abuse their 
stationing power would be the sure way to 
lose it. That Methodist preachers will not 
take the ^- ministerial life " of one of their 
number to please a bishop, the history of 
New England Methodism most abundantly 
proves. They have too much self-respect and 
personal independence to submit to be 



220 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

coerced into that; or any other act, by the 
stationing power. They would despise a 
bishop who should attempt to play the tyrant; 
and, if they saw fit, take the appointing 
power out of the hands of the Episcopacy 
altogether, and give it to a committee of their 
own election. It is, therefore, absolute non- 
sense for our enemies to prate about the 
despotism of Methodist bishops. They have 
no despotic power given them by the Disci- 
pline. They cannot arrogate such power by 
abusing the prerogatives of their office. 
Hence, as I have already said, they do not 
constitute such a centralized authority as is 
necessary to make Methodism a "naked 
clerical despotism." 

Is the General Conference such a central- 
ized authority as is implied in a despotism ? 
I think not. What are the powers of the 
General Conference? 1. It has legislative 
authority — " full powers to make rules and 
regulations for our church." 2. It has a cer- 
tain measure of judicial authority — it is a 



METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 221 



high court of appeals from the judicial 
decisions of Annual Conferences; it is a 
court for the trial of bishops ; it confers 
judicial powers on the Annual and Quarterly 
Conferences; and on the societies "which con- 
stitute the church. 3. It possesses executive 
authority. It can elect and depose the 
bishops. It confers administrative powers on 
bishops, presiding elders, stationed preachers, 
stewards, and class leaders. These are 
large powers, we confess. Viewed apart 
from their limitations, they wear a despotic 
aspect. But it is neither just nor truthful 
to so regard them. They are not absolute 
and irresponsible powers; but they are so 
environed by restrictions and limitations, 
that notwithstanding their formidable ap- 
pearance, they are not inconsistent with 
the liberties of both preachers and people. 

Note then the limitations of these powers. 
1. The six restrictive rules remove several 
most important subjects from the sphere of 
its legislative jurisdiction. By forbidding 



222 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 



it to change the doctrines and General 
Rules/' tliey deprive it of power to afflict 
the conscience of the church by forcing new 
opinions upon it, or to create any law for 
the government of its life, which is not 
already recognized in principle by the 
General Rules. Thus the religious faith 
and the moral duties of the church are not 
placed in the keeping of the General Con- 
ference, and may not be altered by its 
authority. The principle of Methodism is, 
that God has determined these great 
matters, and that ecclesiastical legislation 
can rightfully expound His teachings, and 
no more. The Methodistic exposition of 
them is in our articles of faith and General 
Rules, and the General Conference is for- 
bidden to alter it, except in concurrence 
with the Annual Conferences. Hence the 
sphere for legislation by our General Con- 
ference is mostly limited to disciplinary 
regulations. 

2. The judicial power of the General 



METHODIST CHURCH GOYERNMEXT. 223 



Conference is also limited. It has original 
jurisdiction only over the bishops. It is 
only a court of appeals for travelling 
preachers. It cannot receive and try charges 
against a travelling preacher or a layman. 
The court for the trial of the former is his 
Annual Conference ; for the latter, the 
" society " in which he holds his member- 
ship. Neither can the General Conference 
interfere directly with the action of the 
lower courts. With the ^' society/' or its 
court of appeal, the Quarterly Conference, 
it has no means of intermeddling. The 
decisions of the latter body are final and 
conclusive, unless exception can be taken 
to the administration of the preacher pre- 
siding at the trial. In that case, his admin- 
istration is subject to examination by the 
Annual Conference, and may be determined 
finally by appeal to the General Conference; 
whose decisions may, by possibility, lead 
to a reversal of the finding of the Quarterly 
Conference, and a new trial. Such a result; 



224 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

however, will be an exception to ordinary 
rule. As a matter of fact, Methodist laymen 
are responsible to their peers only. They 
are not held judicially responsible to either 
the General or an Annual Conference. In 
regard to travelling preachers, their first 
responsibility is to their Conference, and 
unless their conduct is brOught by appeal 
before the General Conference, that body 
has no jurisdiction over them. Is it not 
apparent from these facts, that the judicial 
authority of the General Conference is far 
from being absolute or despotic? 

3. The administrative power of the Gen- 
eral Conference is also limited. Its ad- 
ministrative powers are practically limited 
to the election and removal of bishops, and 
to the formation of rules for the conduct of 
the various administrators of its regulations 
provided for in the Discipline. But, let it be 
remembered, there is but one class of admin- 
istrators directly responsible to it, viz., the 
bishops. Class leaders are responsible to 



METHODIST CHUBCH GOYERNMENT. 225 

the preaclier. Stewards to the Quarterly 
Conference. Preachers to their Annual Con- 
ferences. Presiding elders to the Bishops. 
The same thing is partially true of the 
executive bodies in the church. They are not 
so responsible to the General Conference 
as to be susceptible of coercion by it : the 
Quarterly Conference not being responsible 
to it at all, and the Annual Conferences only 
through the submission of their journals to 
it for examination and approval. 

I know that it has been said that the Gen- 
eral Conference could coerce a refractory or 
heretical Annual Conference, by directing 
the bishops to withdraw their administrations 
from it, or to scatter its members by trans- 
fers, and to substitute faithful men by the 
exercise of the same power. But the men- 
tion of these remedies only proves how weak 
the General Conference would be if brought 
into conflict with an Annual Conference, 
united on any great principle or measure ; 
for are not both the remedies proposed, 
15 



226 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

suicidal acts? Does the Conference com- 
mand the bishops to refuse their services 
to a Conference ? What is that but cutting 
off one of its memberS; and thereby weak- 
ening itself. Such an act repeated thirty -nine 
times would annihilate it. The exercise of 
the transfer power to the extent proposed^ 
we take to be practically impossible. It 
looks effectual enough in theory^ but it could 
never be carried out in practice. It is idle 
to dream of it. What body of ministers 
would submit to it ? What body of churches 
would consent to such a removal of their 
pastorate ? How could such a substitution 
be made without almost disorganizing the 
work generally ? Where could the men be 
found who would consent to occupy the terri- 
tory of the refractory Conference under such 
circumstances ? A scheme so hedged up with 
difficulties is not practicable, and its enun- 
ciation was a blunder. It will never be of 
use, save as an argument in the mouth of our 
foeS; who delight to employ it in exhibiting 



METHODIST CHURCH GOTERXMEXT. 227 



wliat tliey call the despotic capabilities of 
Methodism. 

With these facts I submit the question 
to Your good sense : — Can a Conference so 
limited; by constitutional restrictions; in the 
range of its legislative functions; so depen- 
dent for the enforcement and administration 
of its disciplinary regulations on tribunals 
and administrators not judicially responsible 
to itself; and whose action is in a great 
degree independent of it; so almost utterly 
deprived of coercive power; — can such a 
Conference be that centralized authority 
■which men are wont to call a despotism ? 
Was ever government with such limitations 
pronounced a despotism before ? Never. 
Never; so long as it is powerless to impose 
a new dogma on the belief; or a new rule of 
life on the conscience ; so long as it cannot 
arraign; try; or expel layman or minister; so 
long as the enforcement of its regulations 
depends on tribunals which it cannot coerce 
or control ; so long; it must be monstrously 



228 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

unjust and manifestly false to call it a "naked 
clerical despotism." 

ThuS; my reader, you see that none of the 
elements essential to a despotism can be 
found in any part of the system of Metho- 
dism. They are not found in its Annual 
Conferences; in its Episcopacy, nor in its 
General Conference. Can they then be 
found at all? Most assuredly they cannot j 
for the government of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is not a despotism. Neither 
can it ever become such, so long as its exist- 
ence depends on the consent and voluntary 
contributions of its members. Should it 
ever become oppressive, it would fall to 
pieces like a rope of sand. The people have 
but to withold pecuniary support, as they 
would and ought to do, if treated with injus- 
tice, and the fabric would tumble into 
fragments. Deprived of the support of the 
people^ the dependent pastors would be 
compelled to vacate their pulpits, for the 
Conferences have no funds or other property 



METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 229 

wita whicli to support them. So long as the 
ministry is thus directly and absolutely de- 
pendent on the people, there is, there can be, 
no possibility of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church becoming a despotism. 

It is sometimes said that the Methodist 
ministers either own or control the churches 
and parsonages erected by the people ; that 
though this property is held by trustees, they 
are, in fact, appointed by and subject to the 
will of the pastor in office at the time. This 
is another misrepresentation. Our ministers 
neither own nor control church property, as 
you may see by turning to the chapter in the 
Discipline of the M. E. Church which de- 
scribes the duties of the Trustees." That 
chapter provides, 1. That the preacher in 
charge, or presiding elder of the district 
may create "a new board of trustees," to 
hold property for the M. E. Church, unless 
the laws of the State provide for their crea- 
tion in some other way. Hence, in the 
absence of State laws, the right to appoint 



230 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

new hoards of trustees is lodged in our 
preachers. But where State laws provide 
otherwise; the Discipline unequivocally waives 
that right. 

2. When a vacancy occurs in a board of 
trustees, it is the duty of the preacher or 
presiding elder to nominate another person 
to fill the vacancy. The appointment of the 
new trustee, however, is with the trustees. 
If they are equally divided, the preacher has 
the casting vote. 

3. The trustees are not responsible to the 
preacher, presiding elder. Annual, or General 
Conference, but to the Quarterly Conference 
of their circuit or station — which Confer- 
ence, as is well known, is constituted almost 
entirely of laymen. 

4. Our ministry, says Bishop Baker, in his 
excellent " G-uide Book," either in their 
individual or associated capacity, as Annual 
or General Conferences, have never claimed, 
nor do they hold, in law, any title to any 
chapel or parsonage by the deed of settle- 



METHODIST CSrECH GOYERXMENT. 231 

ment. The fee of the land is vested in 
trustees, vrho hold the property in behalf of 
each respective society. The General Con- 
ference claims merely the right to supply the 
pulpit; by such means as it shall elect, with 
duly accredited ministers and preachers of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, who shall 
preach and expound God's holy word 
therein.'' The General Conference of 1796; 
referring to the Deed of Settlement, adopted 
the following sentiments : " By which we 
manifest to the whole world that the property 
of the preaching houses will not be invested 
in the General Conference. But the pres- 
ervation of our union, and the progress of 
the work of God, indispensably require that 
the free and full use of the pulpit should 
be in the hands of the General Conference 
and the yearly Conferences authorized by 
them. Of course, the travelling preachers 
who are in full connexion, assembled in 
their Conferences, are the patrons of the 
pulpits of our churches." Rec. Gen. Conf.^ 



232 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 



p. 15. And if any chapel or parsonage is 
sold by the trustees to liquidate their debts, 
the surplus money; after cancelling the debts^ 
must be appropriated by the Annual Con- 
ference, "according to the best of their 
judgment; for the use of the said society ^ 

From these facts it is obvious that the 
assertion stated above is utterly groundless. 
Our trustees are not appointed by the pastor 
in office;" (except when a new board is to be 
appointed in States which have no statute 
otherwise providing.) They are not sub- 
jected to the will of the pastor in office, for 
they are not responsible to him, nor can they 
be in any way controlled by him. The only 
right which Methodist ministers can legally 
enforce in our church property is that of 
preaching in the pulpits of our churches, and 
occupying our parsonages according to the 
intention of those who contributed monies 
for their erection. Can any man show the 
injustice; or even the impropriety of such a 
claim? It cannot be done. 



9 

METHODIST CHUECH GOTEEXMEXT. 233 

To compreliend and appreciate the govern- 
ment of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
you uiust view it from the same standpoint 
as they who constructed it. From that point 
alonC; can you rationally expect to see it in 
its beauty, fitness, and excellence. If you 
study it from any other position, it -vrill only 
perplex and confound you ; because you will 
fail to discover the motives and aims which 
it embodies. Those motives and those aims 
are the keys which unlock its gates, and 
unfold its wonderful adaptations to all candid 
beholders. Only seize them, and like Chi^is- 
tian and Hopeful with their key of faith in 
the castle of Giant Despair, you will escape 
from the dungeon of perplexity in which 
those who assail it without understanding it 
would fain lock you up for ever. 

What then, are the motives and aims incor- 
porated in it ? You have but to refer to the 
life of Wesley, and the answer is yours. 
What great motive roused him to abandon 
the cloisters of Oxford and to devote himself 



234 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

to the work of an Evangelist ? Did he not 
saj; like Paul, the love of Christ constraineth 
me ? That was his motive — the love of souls 
proceeding from the love of Christ. What 
was his object ? To spread scriptural holi- 
ness over the land and the world ! To these 
ideaS; he and his coadjutors conformed the 
ecclesiastical system which they constructed^ 
both in England and America. They regard- 
ed it, as an organization for the propagation 
of the gospel and the culture of piety in the 
individual heart. They took its laws from 
the Bible, which is the great constitution and 
statute book of Methodism. They framed 
its discipline^ rather as a code of by-laws to 
provide for the execution of the divine 
statutes, than as a book of legislative canons. 
Hence, nearly everything in the discipline 
relates to the constitution of a series of 
executive bodies and officers charged with the 
execution, not of Mr. Wesley's laws, but of 
the precepts of Christ. The classes, love 
feasts, and prayer meetings are for the fulfil- 



METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 235 

ment of Christ's law of Christian fellowship ; 
the board meeting, the Quarterly Conference, 
and the Annual Conference; are chiefly to 
secure wholesome discipline; and to make 
such secular and other provisions as may be 
necessary to the maintenance of a visible 
organization of Christians. The General 
Conference is a legislative body; only so far 
as it determines for the church what moral 
practices the precepts of Christ require it to 
enforce; and what to reject; and what execu- 
tive methods are best fitted to accomplish 
the grand end of the organization. In fact; 
many of its provisions under the latter head 
are merely advisory ; for their observance is 
enforced by no penalty. All its rituals j its 
rules on preaching; on visiting from house to 
housC; on the employment of time ; its direc- 
tions concerning public worship; singing; band 
societies; dresS; marriageS; &c.; fall into this 
category. Thus its discipline iS; as the name 
imports; more a book of provisions for the 
enforcement of the laws of Christ and the 



236 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

propagation of the gospel, than a code of 
legislative canons for the direction of the 
life. He who reads it aright will see its 
grand purpose to engage the whole church in 
unceasing effort to evangelize the world, 
standing out in bold relief on every page. 
He will see this purpose applied, with little 
regard to individual interests, tastes, or 
preferences. No provision is made for the 
toleration of indolence, ambition, or any 
other form of selfishness. Everything is 
made to yield to the demands of the spiritual 
nature and the requirements of a vigorous 
gospel propagandism. 

How beautifully is this illustrated in its 
itinerancy. Observing in the history of the 
primitive church, that it was most pure and 
most successful, when its ministry contained 
a large corps of evangelists ; and that when 
evangelists generally became pastors, they 
lost both their piety and efficiency, Mr. 
Wesley seized on the idea of a ministry 
composed entirely of evangelists or itiner* 



METHODIST CHURCH G0YEEX3IEXT. 237 



ants. He sa^r that such a ministry would 
require great personal sacrifices on the part 
of the ministry, and severe trials of feeling 
on the part of the churches. The former 
must abandon the idea of a permanent and 
real home on earth; must consent to the 
systematic disruption of the social affections ; 
must resign the quiet opportunities for in- 
tellectual culture and social influence vrhich 
the permanent pastorate so abundantly pro- 
vides ; must expose their families to the social 
and educational evils inseparable from a 
pilgrim life : must accept; in a Trord. a life of 
incessant labor, unrest; and change. The 
churches. toO; must be sorely tried in feeling 
by such a system, though their trials are 
nothing when compared to those of the min- 
istry. Mr. Wesley saw all this. But he also 
saW; that all these evils were outweighed by 
the superior vitality, activity; and spiritual 
results likely to proceed from it; and; there- 
fore; he adopted it and recommended the 
American Methodists to do the same. Thus 



238 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

far^ Ihe result has justified his expectation. 
The Methodist itinerancy has been the most 
successful body of ministers known to the 
church since the day of Pentecost. 

Some persons will tell you, it would be 
better if Methodism admitted the laity to 
a more direct participation in the govern- 
ment of the church than it now does. Per- 
haps it would. I see but one real objection 
to the idea ; but that is a very strong one. 
It does not appear practicablej unless some 
other very marked and doubtful changes are 
also made. By degrees, however, it may be 
done. The idea is gaining ground. Our 
ministry is fast yielding the management of 
the financial matters of the church to its 
laymen. It is inviting their cooperation in 
such parts of the business of an Annual 
Conference as admits of it. It interferes 
very little in the fiscal affairs of individual 
churches. In fact, it is my opinion that, in 
our local churcheS; the laity generally have 
more to do with their management, than 



METHODIST CHUECH COTERXMEXT. 239 



they do in CongTegational churches. Our 

boards " and Quarterly Conferences 
usually comprise a majority of the effective 
and active portion of the male membership^ 
and they determine all important matters that 
come up in their respective churches : Tvhile 
in Congregational churches, notwithstanding 
the nominal parity of their members, most of 
their affairs are practically controlled by the 
deacons and two or three other influential 
men. Besides, our laity create the ministry; 
for no man can become a minister without the 
vote of a Quarterly Conference. With the 
Congregationalists, the clergy alone deter- 
mine who shall be admitted to their number. 
So. toOj in the choice of a pastor, though 
our churches consent to receive their preacher 
at the hands of a bishop, yet their wishes 
are always considered and yielded to if 
possible. They certainly obtain the man of 
their choice as frequently as our Congrega- 
tional brethren do, and without the expense 
and difficulty which with them are insepar- 



240 METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

able from a change of pastors. Theoretically 
their system yields more to the laity than 
ours ; practically there is no church which 
furnishes freer scope for the activity; or 
defers more to the choice, of its laymen than 
ours. 

I have now shown you that the govern- 
ment of Methodism is not a despotism; that 
it cannot become so without self destruction, 
because its principal support depends on 
the purely voluntary contributions of the 
laity; that its ruling motive, object, and 
results justify its peculiarities; and that 
though it does not yield so much power in 
theory to laymen, as some other systems, it 
actually concedes much in practice. These 
views will, I hope, satisfy you, that the 
attacks of our enemies are founded more 
in ignorance or malice, than in truth and 
fact. It would be easy to meet all their 
specific allegations in detail, but it is unneces- 
sary in your case. What I have said is 
sufficient to convince you, that you have no 
possible risk of personal oppression in the 



METHODIST CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 241 



M. E. Church ]^ that the only pressure you 
can ever experience from its government, 
will come in the form of effort to promote 
your holiness and usefulness, which is pre- 
cisely what you desire. Hence, to yoii, its 
government will be as acceptable, as its 
doctrines are precious. 

And now, beloved convert, adieu ! Though 
strangers to each other, in the flesh, I trust 
we now feel one in spirit. This being so, you 
will follow tlie advice of my unpretending 
book, and become a willing member of the 
great Methodist Communion; in which case, 
I trust, we shall remain fellow travellers in 
the way of hJiness. until we meet in the 
world of spirits. Should it then appear that 
my advice contributed to your glorious des- 
tiny, we will rejoice together, returning 
thanks to Him whose spirit led me to write 
and you to read. Until then, fare thee well. 

^ For full itiformation on the controverted points in Methodist 
church government see Church Polity by Abel Stevens, Polity 
of Methodism by Dr. Hodgson, Original Church of Christ by 
Dr. Bangs, &c., &c. 

16 



APPENDIX, NO. I. 



The following logical paragraph gives a clear and satis- 
factory view of the difference between the theory which 
in theology is known as Pelagianism, and the evangelical 
Arminianism taught by the M. E. Church. It is taken 
from Watson's Dictionary : 

The followers of the truly evangelical Arminius, or 
those who hold the tenet of general redemption with its 
concomitants, have often been greatly traduced, by the 
ignorant among their doctrinal opponents, as Pelagians, 
or at least as bemi-Pelagians. It may therefore serve the 
3ause of truth to exhibit the appropriate reply which the 
Dutch x\rminians gave to this charge when urged against 
them at the Synod of Dort, and which they verified and 
maintained by arguments and authorities that were un- 
answerable. In their concluding observations they say, 

From all these remarks, a judgment may easily be 
formed at what an immense distance our sentiments 
stand from the dogmatical assertions of the Pelagians and 
Semi-Pelagians on the grace of God in the conversion of 
man. Pelagius, in the first instance, attributed all things 
to nature : but we acknowledge nothing but grace. When 
Pelagius was blamed for not acknowledging grace, he be- 
gan indeed to speak of it, but it is evident that by grace 
he understood the power of nature, as created by God, 
that is, the rational will ; but by grace we understand a 
supernatural gift. Pelagius, when afterwards pressed 
with passages of Scripture, also admitted this supernatu- 
ral grace ; but he placed it solely in the external teaching 
of the law : though we affirm that God offers his word to 
men, yet we likewise affirm that he inwardly causes the 
understanding to beheve. Subsequently, Pelagius joined 
to this external grace, that hy ivhich sins are jxirdoned : we 
acknowledge not only the grace by which sins are for- 



APPENDIX. 



243 



given, but also that by wbicb men are assisted to refrain 
from the commission of sin. In addition to his previous 
concessions, Pelagius granted, that the grace of Christ 
was requisite, beside the two kinds which he had enumer- 
ated ; but he attributed it entirely to the doctrine and ex- 
ample of Christ that we are aided in our endcctvors not 
to commit sin : we likewise admit that the doctrine and 
example of Christ afford us some aid in refraining from 
sin, but in addition to their influence we also place the 
gifc of the Holy Spirit, with which God endues us, and 
which enlightens our understandings, and confers strength 
and power upon our will to abstain from sinning. When 
Pelagius afterward owned the assistance of divine power 
inwardly working in man by the Holy Spirit, he placed 
it solely in the enlightening of the understanding ; but 
we believe, that it is not only necessary for us to know or 
understand what we ought to do, but that it is also re- 
quisite for us to implore the aid of the Holy Spirit that 
we may be rendered capable of performing, and may de- 
light in the performance of, that which it is our duty to 
do. Pelagius admitted grace, — but it has been a ques 
tion with some whether he meant only illumination, or, 
beside this, a power communicated to the will ; — he ad- 
mitted grace, but he did this only to show that by means 
of it man can with greater ease act aright : we, on the 
contrary, affirm that grace is bestowed, not that we may 
be able with greater ease to act aright, (^which is as 
though we can do this even without grace,) but that 
grace is absolutely necessary to enable us to act at aU 
aright. Pelagius asserted, that man, so far from requir- 
ing the aid of grace for the performance of good actions, 
is, through the powers implanted in him at the time of 
his creation, capable of fulfilling the whole law, of loving 
God, and of overcoming all temptations ; we, on the con- 
trary, assert that the grace of God is required for the 
performance of every act of piety. Pelagius declared, 
that by the works of nature man renders himself worthy 
of grace ; but we, in common with the church universal, 
condemn this dogma. When Pelagius afterward himself 
condemned this ten-t, he understood by grace, partly 



244 



APPENDIX. 



natural grace, which is antecedent to all merit, and partly 
remission of sins, which he acknowledged to be gratuit- 
ous ; but he added, that through works performed by the 
powers of nature alone, at least through the desire of 
good and the imperfect longing after it, men merit that 
spiritual grace by which they c^re assisted in good works ; 
but we declare, that men will that which is good on ac- 
count of God's prevenience or going before them by his 
grace, and exciting within them a, longing after good: 
otherwise grace would no longer be grace, because it 
would not be gratuitously bestowed, but only on accouni 
of the merit of man." That many who have held some 
tenets in common with the ti'ue Arminians have been, in 
different degrees, followers of Pelagius, is well knovvn : 
but the original Arminians were in tinith as far from Pe- 
lagian or Semi-Pelagian errors, granting the opinions of 
Pelagius to be fairly reported by his adversaries, as the 
Calvinists themselves. This is also the case with the 
whole body of Wesleyan Methodists, and of the cognate 
societies to which they have given rise, both in Great 
Britain and America. 



APPENDIX, NO. II. 



CALVINISM IN 1855. 

That my reader may judge of Calvinism as now taught 
by some of its advocates, I copy the following extracts 
from the " Confession of Faith and Form of Cover ant, 
of the Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts." 
The edition from which I take these extracts is from the 
press of Crocker & Brewster, and bears the date of 



APPENDIX. 



245 



1855. I have italicised several sentences wliicli are wor- 
thy of special note, because they contain the most ultra 
aspect^) of Calvinism. 

OF god's eterxal deceee. 

God from all eternity did by the most -wise and holy 
counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain 
whatsoever comes to pass ; yet so as thereby neither is 
God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will 
of the creatures ; nor is the liberty or contingency of 
second causes taken away, but rather established. 

2. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come 
to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet liatli lie. not 
decreed anytliing, because he foresaw it as future^ or as 
that which would come to pass upon such conditions. 

3. By the decree of God for the manifestation of his 
glory, some men and anijels are predestinated unto ever- 
lasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. 

4. These angels and men thus predestinated and fore- 
ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, 
and their number is so certain and definite^ that it can- 
not be either increased or diminished. 

5. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, 
God, before the foundation of the world was laid, accord- 
ing to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret 
counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in 
Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace 
and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or 
perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in 
the creature, as conditions or causes moving him there- 
unto, and all to the praise of his glorious grace. 

6. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so 
hath he by the eternal and most free purpose of his will 
foreordained all the means thereunto ; wherefore they 
v/ho are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by 
Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Chnst by his 
spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sancti- 
fied, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation. 



246 



APPENDIX. 



Neither are any other redeemed hy Christy or effectually 
called^ justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the 

ELECT ONLY. 

7. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the 
unsearchable counsel of his own v/ill, whereby he extend- 
ed or withholdeth mercy, as he pleaseth, for the glory of 
his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to 
ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the 
praise of his glorious justice. 



OF EFFECTUAL CALLING. 

All those whom God hath predestinated unto hfe, and 
those only, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted 
time, effectually to call by word and spirit out of that 
state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to 
grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, enlightening their 
minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of 
God, taking away their heart of stone and giving unto 
them an heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by his 
almighty power determining them to that which is good, 
and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ : yet so, 
as they come most freely, being made willing by his 
grace. 

2. This effectual call is of God's free and special grace 
alone, not from any thing at all foreseen in man, who is 
altogether passive therein until, being quickened and re- 
newed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer 
this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed 
in it. 

3. Elect infants dying in infancy, are regenerated and 
saved by Christ, who worketh when, and where, and how 
he pleaseth ; so also are all other elect persons who are 
incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of 
the world. 

Others not elected although they may be called by the 
ministry of the word, and may have some common 
operations of the Spirit, yet not being effectually drawn 
by the Father, they neither do nor can come unto Christ, 



APPENDIX. 



247 



and therefore cannot be saved ; mucli less can men not 
professioor the Christian religion, be saved in any other 
way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their 
lives, acconiing to the hght of nature, and the law of 
that religion they do profess ; and to assert and maintain 
that they may, is very pernicious, and to be detested. 



OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAIXTS. 

They whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectu- 
ally called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neitJier totally 
nor finally fall away from the state of grace^ hut shall 
CERT Ai:sLY persevere therein to this end, and he eternally 
saved. 

2. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon 
their own free icill, but upon the immutability of the de- 
cree of election, from the free and unchangeable love of 
God the Father, upon the efficacy of the merit and in- 
tercession of Jesus Christ, and union with him ; the oath 
of God, the abiding of his Spirit, and the seed of God 
within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace, 
from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibihty 
thereof 

3. And though they may, through the temptation of 
Satan, and of the world, the prevalency of corruption re- 
maining in them, and the neglect of the means of theii 
preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time con- 
tinue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure, and 
grieve his Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and 
comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened, and their 
consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and 
bring temporal judgments upon themselves ; yet they are 
and shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto 
salvation. 



248 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX, NO. III. 



The following extracts, from standard expositors of 
Calvinism, are submitted to the reader to prove that in- 
fant damnation " is a doctrine which the fathers of Cal- 
vinism regarded as a logical sequence of their principles: 
though very few Calvinists of the present day are willing 
to accept such a horrid dogma, albeit it is logically con- 
tained in every forca of Calvinistic theology. 

Augustine, the inventor of the scheme of uncondi- 
tional election, says : — 

"It may therefore be truly said that infants dym<* without 
baptism, "will be in a state of damnation of all the most 
mild. But, greatly does he deceive and is he deceived who affirms that 
they WILL not be damned." — Augustine De Peccat Merit et Remiss^ 
Lib. 1., c. 16. 

Again, in his sermon on baptism, Augustine says : — 

" We affirm that they (infants) will not he saved and have eternal 
life^ except they be baptized in Christ." — De Baptismo Parvulorum 
Contra Pelagianos Strmo D. 

After showing that infants are admitted to the kingdom 
of God by baptism, he adds : — 

" Whosoever does not belong to the kingdom of God, must, 
without doubt, belong to the number of the damned. The Lord 
will come, and, about to judge the living and the de^id, will, accord- 
ing to the gospel, m .ke two divisions, the right and the left. To 
those on the left he will say, Depart into everlasting firk pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels. To those on the right he will 
say. Come, ye blessed of my Father., inherit the kingdom which was 
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The one he calls 
a kingdom, the other damnation wich the devil. There is no 
middle place left where you can put infants Behold, 
on the right is the kingdom of heaven Inherit, he says, the king- 
dom. He who is not there, is on the left. What will happen on 
the left? Depart into everlasting fire. On the right an eternal 



APPENDIX. 249 



kingdom; oii the left, everlasting fire. He that is not on the right, 
will indisputably be on the left. Therefore he that is nnt in the king- 
dom^ IS DOUBTLESS IN ETERNAL FIRE. Certainly he cannot have 
eternal life, v»ho is not baptized; he will not be on the right, that 
is, he will not be in the kingdom. 

Beheld, he [the Lord] has explained to you what is the king- 
dom, and what is everlasting fire, so that when you confess that 
an iNPANT will not be in the kingdom, you may allow that he will 

BE IN ETERNAL FIRE. 

I feel that this question is a profound one, and I own that my 
powers are not sumcient bo fathom its depths I must here be 
content to exclaim with Paul, 0 the depth of the riches! An UN- 
baptized INFANT GOES TO DAMNATION." — i^icf. 14, Capp. 2, 3, 

4, & 7. 

FuLGKXTTUS, a tlieologian of the school of Augustine, 
gives the following as one of the articles of the Orthodox 
faith: — 

" Most firmly hold, and by no means doubt, not only that men 
who have come to the use of reason, but also that infants, whether 
they be.iiin to live in their mother's wombs and there die^ or, after 
being born pass from this life without the sacrament of holy bap- 
tism, which is given in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 

Spirit, WILL BE PUNISHED WITH THE EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT 

OF ETERNAL FIRE; bccause, although they had no sin of their own 
committing, they have nevertheless incurred by their carnal concep- 
tion ;ind nativity, the damnation of original sin." — Fulgentius de 
fide ad Pet. Diac, cap. 27. 

Calvix, in his Theological Tracts, addresses Sebastian 
Castalio, for teaching that all laws, human and divine, 
condemn a man after and because of transgression, in the 
following words : — 

You deny that it is just in God to damn any one, unless on ac- 
count of transgression. Persons innumerable are taken out of life 
while yet infants. Put forth now your virulence against God ivho 

PRECIPITATES INTO ETERNAL DEATH HARMLESS INFANTS [innox- 
ios fati'S) TORN FROM THEIR MOTHERS' BREASTS. He who will not 

detest this blasphemy [of yours] when it is only exposed, may curse 
me at his will. For it cannot be demanded that I should be safe 
and free from tlie abuse of those who do not spare God." — Tracts 
Theol. — Calumnies Nebulonis, ^c, art. 14. 

Once more Calvin says : — 

" TThf t other than the good pleasure of God is the cause why the 
fall of Adam involved in eternal and remediless death whole na- 
tions, with their infant offspring? I confess that it is indeed a 
horrible decree.'' — NichoPs Calvinism and Arminianism Compared., part 
19. 



250 



APPENDIX. 



Edwakds, whose authority as an expounder of Cal- 
vinism is above dispute, says : — 

"We may well art^ue from these things, that infants are not 
looked upon by God as sinless, but that they are by nature children 
of wrath, seeing this terrible evil comes so heavily on mankind in 
infancy. But besides these things, which are observable concerning 
the mortality of infants in general, there are some particular cases 
of the death of infants which the scripture sets before us, that are 
attended with circumstances, in a peculiar manner giving evidences 
of the sinfulness of such, and their just exposedness to divine wrath. 
As particularly, 

"The destroying of the infants in Sodom, and the neighboring 
cities; which cities, destroyed in so extraordinary, miraculous, and 
awful a manner, are set forth as a signal example of God's dreadful 
vengeance for sin, to the world in all generations; agreeable to that 
of the apostle, Jude, verse 7." 

The text here referred to, is in these words : — Even 
as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, in 
like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and 
going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, 

SUFFERING THE VENGEANCE OF ETERNAL FIRE." 

To show that he believed these poor infantile victims 
found no relief in the future, he adds : — 

"To say here, that God could make it up to those infants in 
another world, must be an insutlicient reply. For so he could as 
easily have made it up to Lot, or to ten or tifty righteous if they had 
been destroyed in the same tire: Nevertheless, it is plainly signified, 
that this ivould not have been agreeable to the wise and hohj proceedings 
of the judge of all the earth.'''' — Edwards'' Works., vol. 6.)X>p. 252-254. 

Bellamy, the friend and disciple of Edwards, says : 

" It was at God's sovereign election, — to give every child of Adam 
born in a Christian land, opportunity by living, to hear the glad tid- 
ings, or only to grant this to some, while others die in infaticy, and 
never hear. Those who die in infancy, may as justly be held under 
law in the next world, as those that live may in this. God is under 
no more obligations to save those that die, than he is to save those 
that live; to grant the generating influences of his spirit to them, 
than he is to these." — Bellamy's Works^ vol. 2, pp. 369, 370. 

Zanchius, who has always stood high among Calvinist 

writers, says : — 

" Says Pighius: 'Infants are without actual sin. Therefore, 
although exiles from the kingdom of heaven, they will not bt^ 
damned, nor receive any punishment of sense, except those of them 
who in the course of nature sin, either in their external or internal 
senses [nisi etiam qui sensibus internis vtl externis naturaliter peccant. y 



APPENDIX. 



251 



"I answer. They are nevertheless wicked, and being born 
adapted to sin, AyD therefore justly dam^'ed, although they 
have not yet sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. 
For as temporal death came upon them on account o original sin, 
so DID ALSO ETER^'AL ; for God threatened both when he said : ' In 
dying you shall die.' Even young serpents and the whelps of icolves^ 
who cannot as yet harm anybody, are put to death, and with jus- 
tice. How so? Because they are 'of such a nature, that they easily 
can do harm. Therefore even infants are deservedly dam^'ed, 
on account of the nature they have, to wit, a wicked nature and re- 
pugnant to the laws of God"— O;?. Theol. D. Hieron. Zanchii, Tom. 
4, Lib. 1, De Peccat. Orig. Cap. 4, thes. 5. 

The Syxod at Cambridge, 1648, representing the 
Puritan churches of New England, unanimously adopted 
the confession of faith pubhshed by the Westminster As- 
sembly. The churches of Connecticut did the same at 
Saybrook, in 1608. The Presbyterian Church in the 
United States holds it as its confession. And this confes- 
sion contains the following language : — 

^'-Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by 
Christ through the Spirit, who woVketh when, and where, and how 
he pleaseth. So also {ire all other elect persons, who are incapable 
of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word. 

" Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of 
the word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet 
they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore can?7o? he saved; 
much less can men not professing the Christian religion be saved in 
any other way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their 
lives according to the light of nature, and the law of that religion 
they do profess ; and to assert and maintain that they may, is very 
pernicious, and to be detested." 

The Helvetic divines express their views in these em- 
phatic words : — 

" That there is election axd reprobation of I^"FA^'TS as well as 
of adults, WE CA>r>'OT DE^'Y agai2sST God, who tenderly loves, and 
incvlpahly HATES them before they are born." — Acta Dordrechtana 
Judicia Theologorum Exterior um^ p. 50. 

Archbishop Usher, in his Body of Divinity, p. 165, 
ed. 1702, says : — 

'''■How docs God suffer them to run into condemnation ? 
In a divers manner: Some Eeprobates dyi^'G i:n'fants, oth- 
ers of riper years, of which latter sort some are not called, others 
called. 

'■'■Hoio doth God deal with reprobates dying infants ? 

" Being once conceived, they are in a state of death, (Eom. 5 : 14,) 
by reason of the sin of Adani imputed, and of original corruption 
cleaving to their nature, wherein also dyi^'G they perish. As (for 
instance) the children of heathen parents." 



252 



APPENDIX. 



The German doctors, Deodatus and Tranchinus, pro- 
fessors of theology, said : — 

" Of the infants of believers only, who die of an age before they 
can be indoctrinated, we determine that they are saved." — Acta JDor- 
dreclitana Judicla Tlieologorum Exteriorum^ p. 58. 

Arthur Hildersham says : — 

'* It is evident that God hath witnessed his wrath against the sin 
of infants, not only by hating their sin, but even their persons also, 
(Rom. 9: 11, 13.) And not only by inrJcting temporal punishments 
npon them, but even by casting them into hell. For of those 
that perished in Sodom and Gomorrah, it is ex])ressly said, (Jude 7,) 
that they were not only consumed with fire and brimstone, but that 
they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. And the Apostle prov- 
ing infants to be sinners by thij^' arguments, because death reigneth 
over them, (Rom. 5: 14,) showeth plainly he meaneth not a temporal 
death only, but such as he calleth condemnation (v. 16); there is 
then a natural proneness, disposition and inclination to everything 
that is evil, as there is in the youngest whelp of a lion, or of a bear, 
or of a wolf, unto cruelty, or in the very egg of a cockatrice, before 
it is hatched. Against these damnable errors^ (one of which is that 
all who die in their infancy shall certainly go to heaven,) you have 
heard it evidently proved, 1. That all infants are sinners, and de- 
serve damnation. 2. That many infants liave been vessels ot wrath, 
and FiKEBRANPS OP Hell.'' — Arthur Hildersham'' s Lectures, on the 
61st Psalm, pp. 280, 281, Ed. 1635. 

Twiss, prolucutor of the Westminster Assembly, 
says : — 

" Man)^ thousands, even all the infants of Turks and Saracens 
dying in original sin, are tormented by Him (the Deity) in hell 
FIRE, is he to be accounted the father of cruelties for this? " Again 
''touching punishment in hell, it is either spoken of infants or men 
of riper years— of infants departing in infancy; if guilty of eternal 
death, 't is no injustice to inflict it, and though he be slow to anger 
toward some, yet it is not necessary he should be so to others." 
Again, it is true many infants we say perish in original sin only., not 
living to be guilty of any actual sin, of their persons. Once more: 
" Every man that is damned, it is for original, as well as actual sins, 

and MANY THOUSAND INFANTS ONLY FOR ORIGINAL! " The riche's 
of God'S love., unto the vessels of mercy, consistent luitk his absolute hatred 
or reprobation of the vessels of wrath. — Fol. ed. 1653, pp. 39, 135, 136. 

I close these quotations, which, by the way, are only 
specimens of much more of the same sort, with an ex- 
tract from Wiggles worth's " Day of Doom," which, as 
you know, was once as familiar as the catechism in New 
England, and which, without doubt, represented the cur- 
rent theology. 



APPEXDIX. 



253 



Accordin:! to the marginal note, " reprobate infants " 
plead for themselves thus : — 

Then to the bar a'l they drew near 

Who died in infancy. 
And never had or g-ood or bad 

Effected personally ; 
But from the womb unto the tomb 

Were straightway carried, 
(Or at the last ere tjey -cranssrress'd) 

Who thus began toplead : 



" ' If for our transgression, 

Or disobedience. 
We h.ere did stand at thy lept ha^jd, 

Just were the recompense: 
But Adam's sruilt our souls hath spilt. 

His fault is charged on us; 
And that alone hath overthrown, 

And utterly undone us. 



" ' Xot we. but he. ate of the tree, 

Whose tVuit was interdicted; 
Yet on us all of his sad fall, 

Tlie punisliment "s inflicted; 
How could we sin that had not been, 

Or how is hi* sin our 
Wit'hout consent, which to prevent, 

We never had a power? 

' Behold we see Adam set free, 

And saved from his trespass, 
Who've sinful fall hath s))ilt us all, 

And broucrht us to this pass. 
Canst thou deny us once to try, 

< )r frracf- to us to tenr^er. 
"When he (inds grace before thy face, 

That was the chief olfeuder? ' " 

Another marfrinal note tells us that their " arguments 
are taLen off,'* by the Judge, thus : — 

" Then answered the Judge most dread, 

God doth such doom forbid, 
That men slKnild die eternally 

For what thev never did. 
But what you call old Adam's fall, 

And only his trespass. 
Yon call amiss to call it his. 

Both his and yours it was. 



254 



APPENDIX. 



" ' He was desio^n'd of all mankind 

To be a public head, 
A common root whence all should shoot. 

And stood in all their stead. 
He stood and fell, did ill or well, 

Not for himself alone, 
But for you all, who now his fall, 

And trespass would disown. 

" ' If he had stood, then all his brood 

Had been established 
In God's true Icve. never to move, 

Nor once awry to tread ; 
Then all his race, my Father's grace, 

Should have enjoy 'd forever, 
And wicked sprites by subtle slights 

Could them have harmed never. 
******* 
" ' You sinners are, and such a share 

As sinners may expect. 
Such you shall have ; for I do save 

None but my own elect. 
Yet to compare your sin with their 

Who lived a longer time, 
I do confess yours is much less, 

Though every sin 's a crime. 

*' 'A crime it is, therefore in bliss 
You may not hope to dwell; 
But unto you 1 shall allow 

The easiest room in hell.'' 
The glorious King thus answering. 
They cease and plead no longer: 
Their consciences must needs confess 
His reasons are the stronger. 

" Thus all men's pleas the Judge with ease. 

Doth answer and confute. 
Until that all, both great and small., 

Are silenced and mute. 
Yain hopes are cropt, all mouths are stopt. 

Sinners have nought to say, 
But that 't is just, and equal most 

They should be DAMIS'D FOR AY." 

What Wiggleswortli thought of the " easiest room in 
hell," may be gathered from the following stanza : — 

" But who can tell the plagues of Hell, 
And torments exquisite? 
Who can relate their dismal state, 

And terrors infinite? 
Who fare the best, and feel the least, 

Yet feel thai punishment, 
Wherebv'to noufrht they should be brought 
If God did not prevent." 

Wisgleswoith^ Day of Doom, sixth edition, 1715. 



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